intend
verb/ɪnˈtɛnd/
Etymology From Middle English intenden, entenden (“direct (one’s) attention towards”), borrowed from Old French entendre, from Latin intendō, intendere. See also intensive. Doublet of entendre. Largely displaced native Old English myntan (“to mean, intend; to think, suppose”), whence dialectal mint.
9 senses
- 1To fix the mind upon (something, or something to be…
- 2To fix the mind on; attend to; take care of; superintend; regard.
- 3To stretch to extend; distend.
- 4To strain; make tense.
- 5To intensify; strengthen.
- 6To apply with energy.
- 7To bend or turn; direct, as one’s course or journey.
- 8To design mechanically or artistically; fashion; mold.
- 9To pretend; counterfeit; simulate.
Ambitransitive, Usually To fix the mind upon (something, or something to be accomplished); be intent upon
Or "on"/"upon" + noun Followed by particle "to" + verb
- He intends to go to university.
- They evidently intended some mischief.
4 more examples
- After I've finished my contract I never intend to teach teenagers again.
- 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.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:
- 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.1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
- 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.2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:
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.
- Dotage, fatuity, or folly […] is for the most part intended or remitted in particular men, and thereupon some are wiser than others […]., 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.
- Derived terms
- as God intended, foreintend, intendable, intender, intendingly, intendment, misintend, unintending