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Glite Dictionary
to their fate

to their fate

1 6.8
Leave people alone without help, often in danger, so events decide what happens to them
  • idiom
translation icon : a su suerte
  • How my surrender betrayed their courage and condemned them to their fate.
  • resigned to their fate
  • abandoned to their fate
  • left to their fate

Examples

  • Some peasants lived from day to day, more or less resigning themselves to their fate, while at the same time their neighbors might be occupied with the rational management and planning of the future.

    Academic text (1995)

  • None of the models permit patients unable to get ICU care to be abandoned and left to their fate.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Would you leave them to their fate?

    Blog text (18)

  • Are you going to abandon them to their fate?

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Sometimes I wonder if the sirens have adapted too well to their fate.

    Blood Lust (2016)

  • Colin seemed oddly resigned to their fate.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • Some resigned themselves to their fate and opted to take their own lives when the notice of their deportation from Berlin arrived.

    Academic text (2010)

  • He had probably abandoned her and Muffy to their fate.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Second, in applying Calvinist doctrine, Edwards consistently emphasized the desire of God to save sinners, rather than his indifference to their fate.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Are you going to abandon them to their fate?

Synonyms

high and dry
vsto their fate
  • Informal
15 6.3

Someone has no help or basic things in a difficult situation

focuses on outcomes being decided by circumstances rather than only lacking resources
in the lurch
vsto their fate
  • Informal
8 8.2

Left without help at an important time

lets events determine outcomes rather than being actively abandoned by others

Surface Forms

to their fate positive

Morphology

to + their + fate

The meaning is directly inferable from the constituents: 'to' indicates being placed into a condition, 'their' marks possession, and 'fate' denotes destiny or circumstances, so 'to their fate' naturally conveys being left to whatever destiny dictates. This compositional logic is common across many languages (e.g. Spanish 'a su suerte', French 'à leur sort'), so a B1 learner who knows the words should grasp the phrase.

Etymology

To their fate may come from old stories where people were left by others and a power called fate or the gods would decide what happened to them. So today it means 'left without help' and allowed to be decided by events.