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Webster 1913 Edition


Purport

Pur′port

,
Noun.
[OF.
purport
;
pur
,
pour
, for (L.
pro
) +
porter
to bear, carry. See
Port
demeanor.]
1.
Design or tendency; meaning; import; tenor.
The whole scope and
purport
of that dialogue.
Norris
.
With a look so piteous in
purport

As if he had been loosed out of hell.
Shakespeare
2.
Disguise; covering.
[Obs.]
For she her sex under that strange
purport

Did use to hide.
Spenser.

Pur′port

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Purported
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Purporting
.]
[OF.
purporter
,
pourporter
. See
Purport
,
Noun.
]
To intend to show; to intend; to mean; to signify; to import; – often with an object clause or infinitive.
They in most grave and solemn wise unfolded
Matter which little
purported
.
Rowe.

Webster 1828 Edition


Purport

PUR'PORT

, n.
1.
Design or tendency; as the purport of Plato's dialogue.
2.
Meaning; import; as the purport of a word or phrase.

PUR'PORT

,
Verb.
T.
To intend; to intend to show.
1.
To mean; to signify.

Definition 2024


purport

purport

English

Verb

purport (third-person singular simple present purports, present participle purporting, simple past and past participle purported)

  1. To convey, imply, or profess outwardly (often falsely).
    He purports himself to be an international man of affairs.
  2. (construed with to) To intend.
    He purported to become an international man of affairs.

Translations

Noun

purport (plural purports)

  1. import, intention or purpose
    • 1748, David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
      My practice, you say, refutes my doubts. But you mistake the purport of my question.
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 4, chapter I, Aristocracies
      Sorrowful, phantasmal as this same Double Aristocracy of Teachers and Governors now looks, it is worth all men’s while to know that the purport of it is, and remains, noble and most real.
    • 1939, Ernest Vincent Wright, Gadsby
      A child’s brain starts functioning at birth; and has, amongst its many infant convolutions, thousands of dormant atoms, into which God has put a mystic possibility for noticing an adult’s act, and figuring out its purport.
  2. (obsolete) disguise; covering
    • Spenser
      For she her sex under that strange purport / Did use to hide.

Translations

Anagrams