intend

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English

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Etymology

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FromMiddle Englishintenden,entenden(“direct(one’s)attentiontowards”),borrowed fromOld Frenchentendre,fromLatinintendō, intendere.See alsointensive.Doubletofentendre.

Largely displaced nativeOld Englishmyntan(“to mean, intend; to think, suppose”),whence dialecticalmint.

Pronunciation

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  • enPR:ĭn-tĕndʹ,IPA(key):/ɪnˈtɛnd/
  • Audio(US):(file)
  • Rhymes:-ɛnd
  • Hyphenation:in‧tend

Verb

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intend(third-person singular simple presentintends,present participleintending,simple past and past participleintended)

  1. (transitive,intransitive,usually followed by particle "to" + verb, or "on" / "upon" + noun)To fix the mind upon (something, or something to be accomplished); beintentupon
    Synonyms:mean,design,plan,purpose,foremind,(Northern England, Scotland)mint
    Heintendsto go to university.
    They evidentlyintendedsome mischief.
    • 1897December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill,chapter I, inThe 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 plainlyintendedto 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, inDeath on the Centre Court:
      She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which wereintendedby Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.
    • 2013June 7,Ed Pilkington,“‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”,inThe Guardian Weekly,volume188,number26,page 6:
      In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles wereintendedinitially 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.
  2. To fix the mind on;attendto;take careof;superintend;regard.
  3. (obsolete)Tostretchtoextend;distend.
  4. Tostrain;maketense.
  5. (obsolete)Tointensify;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 partintendedor remitted in particular men, and thereupon some are wiser than others […].
  6. To apply with energy.
  7. Tobendor turn;direct,as one’s course or journey.
  8. To design mechanically or artistically;fashion;mold.
  9. Topretend;counterfeit;simulate.

Usage notes

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Conjugation

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Conjugation ofintend
infinitive (to)intend
present tense past tense
1st-personsingularintend intended
2nd-personsingular intend,intendest† intended,intendedst†
3rd-personsingular intends,intendeth† intended
plural intend
subjunctive intend intended
imperative intend —
participles intending intended

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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  • “intend”,inOneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

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