purposed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of purpose.

   She purposed in her heart to repay every debt she owed.

   The committee purposed to meet again before the year ended.

   Note

   A regular -ed form of a verb meaning to intend or resolve. It can take an object or a to-infinitive (purposed to meet again), and it shares its spelling with the adjective meaning "deliberate". In older texts, watch for a now-obsolete intransitive meaning of the verb, "to discourse", in which purposed means talked rather than intended.

2. 2
   adjective

   Intended and deliberate; done with conscious aim rather than by chance.

   Like a chess move made with the whole game in mind, never an accident.

   The slight was clearly purposed, calculated to wound her in front of everyone.

   Their purposed silence sent a louder message than any argument could have.

   Similardeliberate, intentional, calculated, intended, willful

   Oppositeaccidental, unintentional, inadvertent, unplanned

   Note

   An adjective built straight from the noun, purpose plus -ed: a purposed act has a purpose standing behind it. John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essayes (1603) speaks of a "purposed mishap", an accident arranged on purpose, to render the French aposté. It compares with more and most. Where the "determined" sense describes a person's resolve, this one describes the act itself.

3. 3
   adjectiverare

   Having a definite aim or goal; resolute and determined.

   Like an arrow already loosed, aimed, committed, and unlikely to swerve.

   Her purposed manner left no doubt that she would see the plan through.

   O suitably-attired-in-leather-boots Head of a traveller, wherefore seeking whom Whence by what way how purposed art thou come To this well-nightingaled vicinity?

   1883, A. E. Housman, Fragment of a Greek Tragedy

   Similarpurposeful, determined, resolute, focused, single-minded

   Oppositeaimless, irresolute, halfhearted

   Note

   A rarer sense that describes the person, not the deed: someone set on an aim. A. E. Housman's Fragment of a Greek Tragedy (1883) asks a traveler "how purposed art thou come", meaning with what intent he arrives, in deliberately lofty, antique-sounding phrasing. That flavor clings to it, so in everyday prose "determined" or "resolute" will usually sound more natural.

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