unpurpose

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology 1

From un- +‎ purpose.

Noun

unpurpose (uncountable)

  1. (rare) Lack or absence of purpose; purposelessness.
    • 1909, Francis Gorham, The Lone Trail at Thirty:
      And being. Cant and braggart insolence,
      And inutility and thoughts which veer
      From purpose to unpurpose, and the sneer
      Upon the thin lips of experience,
      Flee from thy sight as snows when the intense
      Sun of forgotten summers greets the year.
    • 1954, Austryn Wainhouse, Hedyphagetica:
      Countless demolitions and re-edifications; a thorough unpurpose, so it seems, a thorough futility, that appears to be the truth and what could be more afflicting to an historian?
    • 1958, José García Villa, Selected poems and new:
      A devil has his purpose.
      Between these Hangs my unpurpose.
      So vast is my unpurpose!
      So pure is its cause!
      Between me and my unpurpose
      Blooms God decisive
      Without laws.
    • 1986, Roger J. Faber, Clockwork Garden:
      How could purpose grow out of unpurpose? In those questions lie the seeds of the argument from design and the romantic view of nature.
    • 2007, Sean C. Cusack, High School Memoirs: A Journey In Surrealism:
      Most people could not believe that was the purpose it served. It was more like an un-purpose.
    • 2011, Philip K. Dick, The VALIS Trilogy:
      “And unpurpose gives rise to purpose.”

Etymology 2

From un- +‎ purpose.

Verb

unpurpose (third-person singular simple present unpurposes, present participle unpurposing, simple past and past participle unpurposed)

  1. (transitive) To deprive of a purpose; to remove or derail the purpose of.
    • 1854, Henry H. Tator, Brother Jonathan's Cottage:
      O, Goodness ! help me to unplan that plan, and to unpurpose that purpose !
    • 1906, Arthur Dillon, King Arthur Pendragon:
      Manifestly so; for by what likelihood
      Had I endured against fourteen knights all armed
      And purposed, I unpurposed and unarmed,
      Save innocency stood my friend?
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