| 释义 |
fatality|feɪˈtælɪtɪ|
[ad. F. fatalité, ad. late L. fātālitātem, f. fātālis fatal: see -ity.]
1. a. The quality or condition of being predetermined by or subject to fate or destiny; subjection to fate, as attributed to the universe generally; the agency of fate or necessity, conceived as determining the course of events.
a1631Donne in Select. (1840) 83 We banish from thence, all imaginary fatality. 1665Glanvill Sceps. Sci. 29 To suppose every action of the Will to depend upon a previous Appetite or Passion is to destroy our Liberty, and to insert a Stoical Fatality. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 7 The Will of Man..may contract upon it self such Necessities and Fatalities, as it cannot upon a suddain rid it self of at pleasure. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. i. 12 The blind impulses of Fatality and Fortune. 1702Eng. Theophrast. 276 Marriages are governed..by an over-ruling fatality. 1736Butler Anal. i. vi. 147 A Fatality supposed consistent with what we certainly experience does not destroy the proof of an intelligent author and Governor of nature. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 583 An irresistible force, a something we cannot explain nor account for its existence..we call a fatality.
b. fig.
1699Bentley Phal. 299 There was..a kind of Fatality in his Errors. 1822Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. iv. (1869) 83 There is a fatality about our affairs. 1834Medwin Angler in Wales II. 61 The Viceroy..as fatality would have it, was struck.
c. A decree of fate.
1763Tucker Freewill §42. 192 If he sows oats in his field, does he think anything of a fatality against his reaping wheat or barley?
d. That which a person or thing is fated to; a destined condition or position, a destiny.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. (Arb.) 124, I took them both for a good boding, and very fatallitie to her Maiestie. 1603Florio Montaigne ii. xxix. (1632) 398 Our fatalitie which it lieth not in us to avoyde or advance. 1648Sterry Clouds 35 He cannot discerne..the Fatality of Persons and Kingdomes. 1692R. L'Estrange Fables, Old Man & Lion 95 All the Father's Precaution could not Secure the Son from the Fatality of Dying by a Lyon. 1860W. Collins Wom. White x. 52 A fatality that it was hopeless to avoid.
¶e. Used for: Belief in fatality; fatalism.
1674Hickman Quinquart. Hist. (ed. 2) 14, I do not find him..charged with Fatality.
2. The condition of being doomed by fate; predestined liability to disaster.
1654Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) II. 116 Ther is a strange fatality..attends all our intentiones and designes. 1769Junius Lett. viii. 33 There [is] a fatality attending every measure you are concerned in. 1871H. Ainsworth Tower Hill iii. v, A sad fatality had attended her family. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets vii. 190 The fatality attending an accursed house.
3. The quality of causing death or disaster; fatalness; a fatal influence.
1490Caxton How to Die 21 Sathanas wyth all his cruelle fatallytees. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xii. 208 7. times 9. or the yeare of sixty three..is conceived to carry with it, the most considerable fatality. 1706–7Farquhar Beaux' Strat. ii. i, Love and Death have their Fatalities. 1793E. Darwin in Beddoes Lett. Darwin 62 Young men and women..if they knew the general fatality of their disease..would despond. 1839Bailey Festus xviii. (1848) 185 Thy beauty hath fatality. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xx. 245 The insidious fatality of hot countries.
4. a. A disastrous event; a calamity, misfortune.
1648Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 19 This was the tragedy of Tuesday..Since this fatality, some talk of an inclination in Surrey to associate. 1678Marvell Growth Popery Wks. I. 463 Their interviews are usually solemnized with some fatality and disaster. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 254 note, Fatalities to which the human race is liable. 1868E. Edwards Raleigh I. v. 83 A long series of fatalities ended in the wreck of two ships.
b. A disaster resulting in death; a fatal accident or occurrence. attrib., as fatality figure, fatality rate.
1840Barham Ingol. Leg., Look at Clock, The shocking fatality Ran over, like wild-fire, the whole Principality. 1861Times 7 Oct., The only fatalities were the five above mentioned, while a large number were more or less injured. 1897Daily News 8 Jan. 6/2 What is called the fatality rate, that is to say, the proportion of deaths to cases, varies considerably in the case of diphtheria. 1912Maclean's Mag. Feb. 433 The ‘fatality’ figures in Toronto..are as follows. 1966Lancet 24 Dec. 1372/2 The daily fatality-rate..shows a peak on the second day in all the groups. 1971Brit. Med. Bull. XXVII. 27/1 The most likely explanation seemed to be a change in the fatality-rate. |