intention

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See also: Intention

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Middle French intention, entention, from Old French entencion, from Latin intentio, intentionem. Compare intent.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

intention (countable and uncountable, plural intentions)

  1. The goal or purpose behind a specific action or set of actions.
    The intention of this legislation is to boost the economy.
    My intention was to marry a wealthy widow.
    It’s easy to promise anything when you have no intention of fulfilling any of it.
    • a. 1784, attributed to Samuel Johnson
      Hell is paved with good intentions.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:
      “My Continental prominence is improving,” I commented dryly. ¶ Von Lindowe cut at a furze bush with his silver-mounted rattan. ¶ “Quite so,” he said as dryly, his hand at his mustache. “I may say if your intentions were known your life would not be worth a curse.”
    • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:
      It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless. And results are all that concern me. […]”
    • 2008 June 1, A. Dirk Moses, “Preface”, in Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page x:
      Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone.
  2. (obsolete) Tension; straining, stretching.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:
      , I.iii.3:
      cold in those inner parts, cold belly, and hot liver, causeth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturbations […].
  3. A stretching or bending of the mind toward an object or a purpose (an intent); closeness of application; fixedness of attention; earnestness.
    • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 2, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], OCLC 153628242, book I, page 19:
      it is attention : when the mind with great earnestness, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea, considers it on all sides, and will not be called off by the ordinary solicitation of other ideas, it is that we call intention or study
  4. (obsolete) The object toward which the thoughts are directed; end; aim.
  5. (obsolete) Any mental apprehension of an object.
  6. (medicine) The process of the healing of a wound.
    • 2007, Carie Ann Braun, Cindy Miller Anderson, Pathophysiology: Functional Alterations in Human Health, p.49:
      When healing occurs by primary intention, the wound is basically closed with all areas of the wound connecting and healing simultaneously.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for intention in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

intention (third-person singular simple present intentions, present participle intentioning, simple past and past participle intentioned)

  1. Intend

Translations[edit]

intend — see intend

References[edit]

  • intention at OneLook Dictionary Search
  • intention in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Finnish[edit]

Noun[edit]

intention

  1. Genitive singular form of intentio.

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle French entention, from Old French entencion, borrowed from Latin intentiō, intentiōnem. Respelled intention in Middle French to more closely match the Classical Latin form.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

intention f (plural intentions)

  1. intention
    dans l'intention de devenir roi
    with the intention of becoming king
    prêter des intentions à quelqu'un
    to accuse someone of intentions ("motives")

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Middle French[edit]

Noun[edit]

intention f (plural intentions)

  1. Alternative form of entention
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