Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Intend
In-tend′
(ĭn-tĕnd′)
, Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Intended
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Intending
.] [OE.
entenden
to be attentive, F. entendre
, fr. L. intendre
, intentum
, and intensum
, to intend, attend, stretch out, extend; pref. in-
in + tendere
to stretch, stretch out. See Tend
.] 1.
To stretch; to extend; to distend.
[Obs.]
By this the lungs are
intended
or remitted. Sir M. Hale.
2.
To strain; to make tense.
[Obs.]
When a bow is successively
intended
and remedied. Cudworth.
3.
To intensify; to strengthen.
[Obs.]
Sir T. Browne.
Magnetism may be
intended
and remitted. Sir I. Newton.
4.
To apply with energy.
Let him
intend
his mind, without respite, without rest, in one direction. Emerson.
5.
To bend or turn; to direct, as one’s course or journey.
[Archaic]
Shak.
6.
To fix the mind on; to attend to; to take care of; to superintend; to regard.
[Obs.]
Having no children, she did, with singular care and tenderness,
intend
the education of Philip. Bacon.
My soul, not being able to
intend
two things at once, abated of its fervency in praying. Fuller.
7.
To fix the mind upon (something to be accomplished); to be intent upon; to mean; to design; to plan; to purpose; – often followed by an infinitely with to, or a dependent clause with that;
as, he
intends
to go; he intends
that she shall remain.They
intended
evil against thee. Ps. xxi. 11.
To-morrow he
To hunt the boar with certain of his friends.
intends
To hunt the boar with certain of his friends.
Shakespeare
8.
To design mechanically or artistically; to fashion; to mold.
[Obs.]
Modesty was made
When she was first
When she was first
intended
. Beau. & Fl.
9.
To pretend; to counterfeit; to simulate.
[Obs.]
Syn. – To purpose; mean; design; plan; conceive; contemplate.
Webster 1828 Edition
Intend
INTEND'
,Verb.
T.
1.
To stretch; to strain; to extend; to distend. By this the lungs are intended or remitted.
[This literal sense is now uncommon.]
2.
To mean; to design; to purpose, that is, to stretch or set forward in mind. [This is now the usual sense.] For they intended evil against thee. Ps.21.
3.
To regard; to fix the mind on; to attend; to take care of. Having no children, she did with singular care and tenderness intend the education of Phillip.
[This use of the word is now obsolete. We now use tend and superintend or regard.]
4.
To enforce; to make intense.Definition 2024
intend
intend
English
Verb
intend (third-person singular simple present intends, present participle intending, simple past and past participle intended)
- To fix the mind upon (something to be accomplished); be intent upon; mean; design; plan; purpose.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
- The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed. They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.
- 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
- She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.
- 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:
- In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
-
- To fix the mind on; attend to; take care of; superintend; regard.
- (obsolete) To stretch to extend; distend.
- To strain; make tense.
- (obsolete) To intensify; strengthen.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Bk.I, New York, 2001, p.139:
- Dotage, fatuity, or folly […] is for the most part intended or remitted in particular men, and thereupon some are wiser than others […].
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Bk.I, New York, 2001, p.139:
- To apply with energy.
- To bend or turn; direct, as one’s course or journey.
- To design mechanically or artistically; fashion; mold.
- To pretend; counterfeit; simulate.
Usage notes
- This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Synonyms
Translations
to fix the mind upon a goal
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to be intent upon