PURPOSE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Purpose

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/pˈərpəs/ Listen

noun

Purpose n.

That which a person sets before himself as an object to be reached or accomplished; the end or aim to which the view is directed in any plan, measure, or exertion; view; aim; design; intention; plan. "He will his firste purpos modify." "As my eternal purpose hath decreed." "The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it."

Proposal to another; discourse. (Obs.)

Instance; example. (Obs.)

In purpose, Of purpose, On purpose, with previous design; with the mind directed to that object; intentionally. On purpose is the form now generally used.

Synonyms: design; end; intention; aim. See Design.

verb

Purpose v. t. (past & past part. purposed; pres. part. purposing)

To set forth; to bring forward. (Obs.)

To propose, as an aim, to one's self; to determine upon, as some end or object to be accomplished; to intend; to design; to resolve; often followed by an infinitive or dependent clause. "Did nothing purpose against the state." "I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living."

Purpose v. i. To have a purpose or intention; to discourse. (Obs.)

See images of 'Purpose'

Etymology of 'Purpose'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Purpose" Quotes from Famous Books

... conductor entered. He was a tall and, of course, dignified East Indian in turban and khaki uniform. He had the punch without which no conductor would be complete, and, suspended from a strap over his shoulder, was a huge canvas bag, like a mail bag, the purpose of which puzzled me. The fare, he told me, was fifteen cents to the end of the line; on giving him a twenty-cent piece I found the purpose of the canvas bag; it was his money bag, and he carefully fished from its depths my five cents change. The Borneo ...

— Wanderings in the Orient • Albert M. Reese

... Innate Ideas having been deservedly exploded, it follows that these Ideas must be derived from our intercourse with the world we inhabit. For this purpose we are furnished with five senses, from each of which we obtain a separate and different kind of intelligence, which is denominated Perception. The perceptions of the Eye, under an attentive inspection, leave on the ...

— On the Nature of Thought - or, The act of thinking and its connexion with a perspicuous sentence • John Haslam

... there came a 'phone from the Navy Yard. On account of the Great European War the Coast Guard had undertaken some special neutrality duty in New York harbor. The Navy had lent a tug for the purpose. The 'phone message was to say that while the Coast Guard was perfectly welcome to the tug, on which the patrol was being done, the tug captain was ...

— The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... studies, using tiles of their own burnt dwellings in lieu of slates, and bits of lime for chalk, even while the earth still trembled beneath them. [2] What future miracles may justly be expected from the amazing power of purpose ...

— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan • Lafcadio Hearn

... never yet lost its power to make me grip my hands suddenly. "So! And my life has no other purpose, then, than to point a moral for ...

— The Journal of Arthur Stirling - "The Valley of the Shadow" • Upton Sinclair

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