intentioned

1. 1
   adjectivein compounds

   Having intentions of a particular kind or character, such as good intentions or bad ones.

   Her advice was generously intentioned, though it missed the real problem.

   The reform looked honestly intentioned but ended up serving only a few.

   Similarmotivated, intended

   Note

   Built from the noun intention plus -ed, the same 'having' suffix found in talented or bearded, so the word means 'having intentions' and needs a modifier to say what kind. It almost always appears in compounds such as well-intentioned and ill-intentioned, or after an adverb, as in honestly intentioned. On its own it cannot be graded: any 'more' or 'less' belongs to the modifier.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of intention.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is regular: intention, used as a verb, simply means 'to intend', so intentioned does the work of intended, the plainer choice. It forms perfect tenses with have (they had intentioned) and passives with be. The same spelling serves the adjective of kind, and the two are easy to tell apart: the verb takes an object, while the adjective takes a modifier, as in well-intentioned.

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