Definition of "purpose" []

• The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; an aim or a goal: "And ever those, who would enjoyment gain/Must find it in the purpose they pursue” ( Sarah Josepha Hale). (noun)
• A result or effect that is intended or desired; an intention. See Synonyms at intention. (noun)
• Determination; resolution: He was a man of purpose. (noun)
• The matter at hand; the point at issue. (noun)
• To intend or resolve to perform or accomplish. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Their first argument is that the very consideration of purpose is deceptive: according to them, true purpose” is unknowable, and its search merely an excuse for courts to act selectively and unpredictably in picking out evidence of subjective intent."
• "He had seemed to love it little in the years when every penny had its purpose for him; for he loved the _purpose_ then."
• "Not that I mean to say, that I always began to write with a distinct purpose formally conceived; but I believe that my habits of meditation have so formed my feelings, as that my descriptions of such objects as strongly excite those feelings, will be found to carry along with them a _purpose_."