intend
Etymology

From Middle English intenden, entenden ("direct (one’s) attention towards"), borrowed from Old French entendre, from Latin intendo.

Pronunciation
  • enPR: ĭn-tĕndʹ, IPA: /ɪnˈtɛnd/
Verb

intend (intends, present participle intending; simple past and past participle intended)

  1. (ambitransitive, usually followed by particle "to" + verb, or "on"/"upon" + noun) To fix the mind upon (something, or something to be accomplished); be intent upon
    Synonyms: mean, design, plan, purpose, foremind, mint
    He intends to go to university.
    They evidently intended some mischief.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  2. To fix the mind on; attend to; take care of; superintend; regard.
  3. (obsolete) To stretch to extend; distend.
  4. To strain; make tense.
  5. (obsolete) To intensify; strengthen.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗:
      , 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 […].
  6. To apply with energy.
  7. To bend or turn; direct, as one’s course or journey.
  8. To design mechanically or artistically; fashion; mold.
  9. To pretend; counterfeit; simulate.
Conjugation Related terms Translations Translations


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Offline English dictionary