fatal

adjective

1. 1

   archaicProceeding from, or appointed by, fate or destiny.

   She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

2. 2

   archaicForeboding death or great disaster.

   Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

3. 3

   Causing death or destruction.

   a fatal wound; a fatal disease; that fatal day; a fatal mistake

   Author Rita Mae Brown consistently strings together short comical movie clips which may be fine for screenplays but fatal in novels. Unfortunately, Toder chooses to imitate this model and her story suffers.

   I shoot Mrs. Marlow expertly through the neck. This is not a fatal wound. The bullet misses every artery. She is paralyzed before it leaves her body. Which doesn’t mean she can’t feel pain. It just means she can’t do anything about it. This is my design.

   For this reason, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that spinach be cooked at 160º for 15 seconds, which kills potentially fatal bacteria.

4. 4

   Causing a sudden end to the running of a program.

   a fatal error; a fatal exception

noun

1. 1

   A fatality; an event that leads to death.

   another fatal on the turnpike during rush hour

   For this same period there have been four fatals and 44 nonfatals in gassy mines.

   The best accident rate in general aviation is in corporate/executive flying at 0.17 per 100000 hours for fatals and .50 for total accidents.

2. 2

   A fatal error; a failure that causes a program to terminate.

Forms

plural

fatals

comparative

more fatal

superlative

most fatal