on purpose
prep_phrase1
Idiomatic By design, as opposed to by accident; intentionally; deliberately.
- That wasn't an accident! You did it on purpose!
2
Archaic In order to (do something); with the objective that.
- Blifil bowed and stammered, and looked like a fool; but Western, without giving him time to form a speech for the purpose, answered, “Well, well, I am to blame, if you will, I always am, certainly; but come, let the girl be fetched back again, or let Mr Blifil go to her.——He’s come up on purpose, and there is no time to be lost.”1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
- I send this to the town, on purpose to have it reach you by the earliest post […].1792, Charlotte Smith, Desmond, Broadview, published 2001, page 260:
- Derived terms
- accidentally on purpose
- Related terms
- malice aforethought, purposefully