intend

English

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 dialectical mint.

Pronunciation

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

Verb

intend (third-person singular simple present intends, present participle intending, simple past and past participle intended)

(transitive, intransitive, usually followed by particle "to" + verb, or "on"/"upon" + noun) To fix the mind upon (something, or something to be accomplished); be intent upon
Synonyms: mean, design, plan, propose, purpose, (Northern England, Scotland) foremind, mint

He intends to go to university.

They evidently intended some mischief.
- 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:
  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.
- 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
  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.
- 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:
  In his submission to the UN, 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.
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.
- 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 part intended or remitted in particular men, and thereupon some are wiser than others .
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.

Usage notes

This is a catenative verb that mostly takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs.

Conjugation

Conjugation of intend

infinitive	(to) intend
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	intend	intended
2nd-person singular	intend, intendest^†	intended, intendedst^†
3rd-person singular	intends, intendeth^†	intended
plural	intend	intended

subjunctive	intend	intended

imperative	intend	—

participles	intending	intended