From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsomething was meant to be/happensomething was meant to be/happenCERTAINLY/DEFINITELYused to say that you think a situation was certain to happen and that no one could have prevented it Dan left me after a month so I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. → mean
Examples from the Corpus
something was meant to be/happen• Perhaps it's because none of this was meant to happen.• Imprinted with cell bars, the first Tricky Envelope was meant to be festooned with the Richard Nixon stamp.• Designed by Robert Von Hagge, it was meant to be hard.• She was meant to be illustrating a new book for children, a fantasy story by a well-known author.• Technically he was meant to be in bed.• The fit crew was meant to be Merrill Lynch.• Our protest was meant to be purely symbolic.• It was meant to be some kind of joke. 