For"tune (?; 135), n. [F. fortune, L. fortuna; akin to fors, fortis, chance, prob. fr. ferre to bear, bring. See Bear to support, and cf. Fortuitous.]
1.
The arrival of something in a sudden or unexpected manner; chance; accident; luck; hap; also, the personified or deified power regarded as determining human success, apportioning happiness and unhappiness, and distributing arbitrarily or fortuitously the lots of life.
'T is more by fortune, lady, than by merit.
Shak.
O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle.
Shak.
2.
That which befalls or is to befall one; lot in life, or event in any particular undertaking; fate; destiny; as, to tell one's fortune.
You, who men's fortunes in their faces read.
Cowley.
3.
That which comes as the result of an undertaking or of a course of action; good or ill success; especially, favorable issue; happy event; success; prosperity as reached partly by chance and partly by effort.
Our equal crimes shall equal fortune give.
Dryden.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Shak.
His father dying, he was driven to seek his fortune.
Swift.
4.
Wealth; large possessions; large estate; riches; as, a gentleman of fortune.
Syn. -- Chance; accident; luck; fate.
Fortune book, a book supposed to reveal future events to those who consult it.
Crashaw.
- Fortune hunter, one who seeks to acquire wealth by marriage. -- Fortune teller, one who professes to tell future events in the life of another. -- Fortune telling, the practice or art of professing to reveal future events in the life of another.
© Webster 1913.
For"tune, v. t. [OF. fortuner, L. fortunare. See Fortune, n.]
1.
To make fortunate; to give either good or bad fortune to.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
2.
To provide with a fortune.
Richardson.
3.
To presage; to tell the fortune of.
[Obs.]
Dryden.
© Webster 1913.
For"tune, v. i.
To fall out; to happen.
It fortuned the same night that a Christian, serving a Turk in the camp, secretely gave the watchmen warning.
Knolles.
© Webster 1913.