destiny Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future
    fate.
  2. noun the ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman)
    fate.
    • we are helpless in the face of destiny
  3. noun your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
    fortune; fate; portion; lot; luck; circumstances.
    • whatever my fortune may be
    • deserved a better fate
    • has a happy lot
    • the luck of the Irish
    • a victim of circumstances
    • success that was her portion

WordNet

Des"ti*ny noun
Etymology
OE. destinee, destene, F. destinée, from destiner. See Destine.
Wordforms
plural Destinies
Definitions
  1. That to which any person or thing is destined; predetermined state; condition foreordained by the Divine or by human will; fate; lot; doom.
    Thither he Will come to know his destiny. Shak.
    No man of woman born, Coward or brave, can shun his destiny. Bryant.
  2. The fixed order of things; invincible necessity; fate; a resistless power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual.
    But who can turn the stream of destiny? Spenser.
    Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. Longfellow.
    Marked by the Destinies to be avoided. Shak.

Webster 1913