ADJ
- awful, dreadful, grim, terrible
- cruel, unhappy
- tragic
- worse
- They decided to kill themselves rather than suffer a worse fate at the hands of their enemy
- common, normal, usual
- likely
- Under-representation is the likely fate of small parties
- ultimate
- unknown
- The ultimate fate of the captured troops is unknown
- the same, similar
- She broke her ankle before the big match, then suffered the same fate a month later
VERB + FATE
- face
- He faces a grim fate if he is sent back to his own country
- meet, suffer, undergo
- share
- He had no desire to share the fate of his executed comrades
- avoid, escape
- She managed to escape the fate of the other rebels
- deserve
- What had he done to deserve such a terrible fate?
- accept, be resigned to
- The condemned men were resigned to their fate
- bemoan, bewail
- Instead of just bemoaning your fate, why not do something to change it?
- ponder
- seal
- He had signed his confession and sealed his own fate
- decide
- An extraordinary general meeting to decide the company's fate will be held on Thursday
- abandon sb/sth to, leave sb/sth to
- The generals abandoned the men to their fate
- rescue/save sb/sth from
- discover, hear (of), know (of), learn (of)
- He will learn of his fate in court tomorrow
- await
- The convicts awaited their fate in prison
FATE + VERB
- await sb/sth, be/lie in store for sb/sth
- They were warned of the dreadful fate that awaited them if ever they returned to their homes
- befall sb/sth
- Worst of all was the fate that befell the captured rebel general
- be/hang in the balance
- The fate of the African wild dog hangs in the balance (= is uncertain)
PHRASES
- hold/have sb/sth's fate in your hands
- The jury held the fate of the accused in their hands
- leave/place/put your fate in sb's hands, a fate worse than death (often humorous)
- Obeying her parents' wishes for her life seemed a fate worse than death
ADJ
- cruel
- He believed that the universe was controlled by the whims of a cruel fate
- kind
- Fate was kind to me
VERB + FATE
- believe in
- Such coincidences are almost enough to make one believe in fate
- tempt
- It would be tempting fate to say that we will definitely win the game
- leave sth to
- I have a great deal of trust and I leave everything to fate
FATE + VERB
- decide sth, decree sth
- Fate decreed that she would never reach America
- intervene
- He secretly hoped that fate would intervene and save him having to meet her
- strike
- Only weeks after her previous injury, fate struck again, leaving her unable to compete
- deal a/its hand, deal sb a hand
- Anne accepted the cruel hand that fate had dealt her
- take a hand
- Fate took a hand in (= influenced) the outcome of the championship
PHRASES
- an accident/quirk/turn/twist of fate
- It seemed a cruel twist of fate that the composer should have died so young
- the hand of fate
- The new job had come at just the right time for him. Was it the hand of fate?
