tempt fate
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To take a risk that is likely to have bad consequences
Literally: to attract or invite fate
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
That is saying something and, indeed, there are those closer to him who suggest that he really believes he has got the ball ' on a piece of string ' at the moment, but hardly dares to say so in case it tempts fate.
By their recent actions, loyalist paramilitaries are tempting the same fate — with far more damaging long - term political effects.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “tempt fate” mean?
To take a risk that is likely to have bad consequences Literally: to attract or invite fate
Is “tempt fate” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.