▪ I. destiny, n.
(ˈdɛstɪnɪ)
Forms: 4 destine, -ene(é), -ane(e, 4–5 destyne, -ynie, -any(e, 4–6 destenie, -enye, 4–7 -eny, 5 -inee, -ynee, -eyne, -enye, -ayne, disteyne, -yne, 5–6 destyny, -onie, -onye, 6–7 destinie, 6– destiny.
[ME., a. OF. destinée (12th c. in Littré) = Pr. destinada, It. destinata, fem. n. from L. pa. pple. dēstinātus, -a: see -ade suffix.]
I. As a fact or condition.
1. That which is destined or fated to happen; predetermined events collectively; = fate n. 3 a.
| 1340–70 Alisaunder 1026 Hee shall bee doluen and ded as destenie falles. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. xiii. 134 And sua ware brokyn Destyne. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 120 Desteyne, or happe..fatum. 1717 tr. Leibnitz in Clarke & Leibnitz Collect. Papers v. 165 There is Fatum Christianum, A certain destiny of every thing, regulated by the foreknowledge and providence of God. 1849 Whittier Voices of Freedom, Crisis x, This day we fashion Destiny, our web of Fate we spin. |
† b. A declaration or prognostication of what is fated to happen. Obs. rare.
| 1602 W. Fulbecke Pandectes 40 æneas commeth into Italie to maintaine warre by destinies, and oracles. |
2. That which is destined to happen to a particular person, country, institution, etc.; (one's) appointed lot or fortune; what one is destined to do or suffer; = fate n. 3 b.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 49 Ȝif me be dyȝt a destyne due to haue. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 250 If so be my destynee be shapen By eterne word to dyen in prisoun. c 1450 Merlin 582 On monday by goode distyne we shall meve alle to go towarde Clarence. 1548 Hall Chron. 91 The common people lamented their miserable destiny. 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. (1882) 63 Oh, I was borne to it, it was my destonie. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. ii. ix. 83 The ancient saying..Hanging and wiuing goes by destinie. 1605 ― Macb. iii. v. 17 Thither he Will come, to know his Destinie. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 63 The reward and destiny due to Traytors overtakes them. 1812 J. Wilson Isle of Palms ii. 586 Sublimely reconciled To meet and bear her destiny. 1841 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life III. viii. 117 All literary people die overwrought; it is the destiny of the class. |
3. In weakened sense (cf. destine v. 2): What in the course of events will become or has become of a person or thing; ultimate condition; = fate n. 4. (Also in pl.; cf. fortunes.)
| 1555 Eden Decades 58 The vnfortunate destenie of Petrus de Vmbria. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 272 Jacob was murdered..and Issuff died of an Imposthume. Their Children also had little better destiny. 1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Lady X— 1 Oct., They seem worthy of another destiny. 1855 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Hist. iv. 120 That battle which settled the destiny of Saxon independence. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid iii. 53 Troy's strength broken, her destinies waning. |
II. As an agency or agent.
4. The power or agency by which, according to various systems of philosophy and popular belief, all events, or certain particular events, are unalterably predetermined; supernatural or divine pre-ordination; overruling or invincible necessity; = fate n. 1. (Often personified; see also 5.)
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1752 How þat destine schulde þat day [dyȝt] his wyrde. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 952 Dido, He..sayleth forth..Towarde Ytayle, as wolde destanee. c 1530 More Answ. Frith Wks. 839/2 Some ascribing all thyng to destyny without any power of mannes free wyll at all. 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 19 It seemed that some furious destinie lead him headlong to his end. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iii. iii. 53 Three men of sinne, whom destiny That hath to instrument this lower world..the..Sea Hath caus'd to belch vp. 1667 Milton P.L. iv. 58 Had his powerful Destiny ordaind Me some inferiour Angel. 1791 Cowper Iliad xviii. 678 The force Of ruthless Destiny. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. i. (1878) 1 That destiny which took form to the old pagans as a gray mist high above the heads of their gods. 1887 Bowen Virg. Eclogue iv. 46 ‘Ages blest, roll onward!’ the Sisters of Destiny cried. |
† b. With possessive pronoun: The power or agency held to predetermine a particular person's life or lot. Obs.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 757 My dere destyne Me ches to hys make al-þaȝ vnmete. c 1374 Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 339 Thus holdithe me my destenye a wrechche. a 1668 Denham (J.), Had thy great destiny but given thee skill To know, as well as pow'r to act her will. |
5. Mythol. The goddess of destiny; pl. the three goddesses held, in Greek and Roman mythology, to determine the course of human life; the Fates: see fate n. 2.
| 14.. Lat. & Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 573/35 Cloto, on of thre shapsisterys vel shappystrys [vel destynyes]. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. ii. 15 Seuen faire branches..Some..dride by natures course, Some..by the destinies cut. 1623 Lisle ælfric on O. & N. Test. Ded. 27 So charge the Destinies their spindle runne. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 523 ¶7, I shall not allow the Destinies to have had an hand in the deaths of the several thousands who have been slain in the late war. 1814 Southey Roderick xxi. 345 We, poor slaves..must drag The Car of Destiny, where'er she drives Inexorable and blind. 1857 Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. I. 125 The adamantine distaff which Destiny holds. |
III. attrib.
| 1552 Huloet, Desteny readers or tellers, Fatidici. |
▪ II. † ˈdestiny, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n. Cf. to fate.]
trans. To destine, foreordain, predetermine.
| c 1400 Test. Love iii. (1560) 298/1 If in that manner bee said, God toforne have destenied both badde and her bad werkes. 1520 Caxton's Chron. Eng. ii. 10 b/1 That lande is destenyed and ordeyned for you and for your people. 1592 Chettle Kinde-harts Dr. (1841) 58 Hidden treasure is by spirits possest, and they keepe it onely for them to whome it is destinied. 1652 J. Wright tr. Camus' Nature's Paradox 63 The high Providence of Heaven..destinying me to misfortune. |
b. To devote to some fate by imprecation.
| a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 108 It is gret perille for fader and moder to curse her children ne forto destenie hem vnto any wicked thinge. |
c. To divine or prognosticate (what is destined to happen). (Cf. prec. 1 b.)
| 1548 Hooper Declar. Ten Commandm. iv, Such as give faith unto..such as destinieth what shall happen..committeth idolatry. |
▪ III. † destiˈny, ppl. a. Obs. rare.
In 5 destyne, 6 destany.
[a. F. destiné, pa. pple. of destiner to destine.]
Destined.
| c 1474 Caxton Troye 198 (Sommer 397) Shewyng hym by certayne signes that hit was destyne that another shold make the Cyte. 1513 Douglas æneis vii. iii. 36 All haill, thou ground and land, quod he in hy, By the fatis vnto me destany. |