| / English Dictionary |
DESTINY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future
Synonyms:
destiny; fate
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("destiny" is a kind of...):
happening; natural event; occurrence; occurrent (an event that happens)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "destiny"):
inevitable (an unavoidable event)
karma ((Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation)
kismat; kismet ((Islam) the will of Allah)
predestination (previous determination as if by destiny or fate)
day of reckoning; doom; doomsday; end of the world (an unpleasant or disastrous destiny)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman)
Example:
we are helpless in the face of destiny
Synonyms:
destiny; fate
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("destiny" is a kind of...):
causal agency; causal agent; cause (any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results)
Holonyms ("destiny" is a part of...):
occult; supernatural (supernatural forces and events and beings collectively)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
Example:
success that was her portion
Synonyms:
circumstances; destiny; fate; fortune; lot; luck; portion
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("destiny" is a kind of...):
condition (a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "destiny"):
good fortune; good luck; luckiness (an auspicious state resulting from favorable outcomes)
providence (a manifestation of God's foresightful care for his creatures)
bad luck; ill luck; misfortune; tough luck (an unfortunate state resulting from unfavorable outcomes)
failure (lack of success)
Context examples:
This week is their week of destiny.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Half his destiny would then be determined, but the other half might not be so very smoothly wooed.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
He was, in fact, commanding destiny—subjectively.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Mrs Musgrove was of a comfortable, substantial size, infinitely more fitted by nature to express good cheer and good humour, than tenderness and sentiment; and while the agitations of Anne's slender form, and pensive face, may be considered as very completely screened, Captain Wentworth should be allowed some credit for the self-command with which he attended to her large fat sighings over the destiny of a son, whom alive nobody had cared for.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I could not think that this earth contained a place for sufferings and terrors so unmanning; and you can do but one thing, Utterson, to lighten this destiny, and that is to respect my silence.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right understanding: but my wife protested I should never go to sea any more; although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not power to hinder me, as the reader may know hereafter.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
"And your will shall decide your destiny," he said: "I offer you my hand, my heart, and a share of all my possessions."
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Go for the gold, dear Pisces, as your destiny seems to be shaping up before your eyes.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
It was surely that I might fulfil my destiny, which is now drawing to a close.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
This tirade against destiny went on for an hour or more, and then he buckled to his work, limping and groaning, and in his eyes a great hatred for all created things.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
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