fortunes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of fortune.

   The war reversed the fortunes of half the noble houses in the region.

   Investors watched their fortunes rise and fall with each market swing.

   Note

   Every meaning of the noun can be counted, so the plural carries them all: destinies, a fortune teller's predictions, the slips from fortune cookies, sums of wealth. The surrounding words sort them out, since fortunes are told, made or reversed. The same spelling is also the verb's -s form. An object after it (it fortunes him) marks the verb, and a preceding the or possessive marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of fortune. The verb is archaic.

   Note

   Two quite different constructions share this -s form. Used transitively, with a person as object, it means giving someone wealth or telling their future: a dying uncle fortunes his nephew. Used intransitively, with it as subject, it means "happens," as in as it fortunes. That second use is obsolete and is best kept for deliberately old-fashioned writing.

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