Definition of "purpose"
purpose1
noun
countable and uncountable, plural purposes
The end for which something is done, is made or exists.
Quotations
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, “http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/29/killer-robots-ban-un-warning ‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told]”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6
Quotations
The purpose of the gall-bladder is obviously to permit the accumulation of bile, when it is not wanted in the intestine; and we find it most constantly present in those tribes of animals, which live upon animal food
1846, William Benjamin Carpenter, Elements of Physiology: Including Physiological Anatomy, for the Use of the Medical Student, page 281
(Sense of having a) meaning for existing or doing something.
Quotations
Before being hospitalized, Thea filled her days with work that gave her life purpose. Whether it was teaching, writing, or investing in relationships, Thea was busily and actively engaged in activity that she could feel good about.
2011 October 1, Sarah Jobe, Creating with God: The Holy Confusing Blessedness of Being Pregnant, Paraclete Press
A sense of belonging helps to ground the individual by providing a particular way of being in the world which, in turn, helps individuals to make meaning of their life experiences and gives them a sense of purpose, including a sense of responsibility to the group to which one belongs.
2016 January 8, Marian de Souza, Spirituality in Education in a Global, Pluralised World, Routledge
Quotations
[…] purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout ſuſpition, no doubt to their equall ioy and contentment.
1620, Giovanni Bocaccio, translated by John Florio, The Decameron, Containing an Hundred Pleaſant Nouels: Wittily Diſcourſed, Betweene Seuen Honourable Ladies, and Three Noble Gentlemen, Isaac Iaggard, Nouell 8, The Eighth Day
Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.
2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
(obsolete) The subject of discourse; the point at issue.
Quotations
The speech he made was so little to the purpose, that I shall not trouble my Readers with an account of it; and I believe was not so much designed by the Knight himself to inform the Court, as to give him a figure in my eye […]
1711 July 31 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, July 20, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 122; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, page 151
The duke was restless and thoughtful the whole evening, often changed the discourse; like an absent man; and abruptly, quite from the purpose; asked the marshal, "If in his military expeditions, he had ever undertaken any affair of consequence in the night."
1770, Christof Hermann von Manstein, Memoirs of Russia, Historical, Political and Military, from the Year MDCCXXVII to MDCCXLIV, page 267
purpose2
verb
third-person singular simple present purposes, present participle purposing, simple past and past participle purposed
(transitive) To have or set as one's purpose or aim; resolve to accomplish; intend; plan.
Quotations
I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living.
1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 1
Whatever you would call "suffering" in your own life, God has allowed it. Even purposed it. Don't you dare think you can't handle it! First Corinthians 10:13 promises that you can not only handle it, but glorify God in it.
2011 September 7, Joni Eareckson Tada, Glorious Intruder: God's Presence in Life's Chaos, Multnomah, page 123
(intransitive) To have (an) intention, purpose, or design; to intend; to mean.
Quotations
Upon my ſoul, / You may beleeve him: nor did he ere purpoſe / To me but nobly; […]
1622 May 24 (licensing date), John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Prophetesse”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, Act IV, scene ii, page 39, column 2
(obsolete, intransitive) To discourse.
Quotations
Wherein, as yee heape vp the names of a number of men not vnworthy to bee had in honour; ſo there are a number whom when yee mention, although it ſerue yee to purpoſe with the ignorant and vulgar ſort, who meaſure by tale and not by waight, yet ſurely they who know what qualitie and value the men are of, will thinke yee drawe very neare the dregs.
1594, Richard Hooker, “A Preface to Them that Seeke (as They Terme It) the Reformation of Lawes and Orders Ecclesiasticall, in the Church of England”, in J[ohn] S[penser], editor, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], 3rd edition, London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, book I