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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

unpurpose en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From un- + purpose.

Meanings

  1. (rare, uncountable) Lack or absence of purpose; purposelessness.
    • Most people could not believe that was the purpose it served. It was more like an un-purpose. 2007, Sean C. Cusack, High School Memoirs: A Journey In Surrealism:
    • How could purpose grow out of unpurpose? In those questions lie the seeds of the argument from design and the romantic view of nature. 1986, Roger J. Faber, Clockwork Garden:
    • 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? 1954, Austryn Wainhouse, Hedyphagetica:
    • “And unpurpose gives rise to purpose.” 2011, Philip K. Dick, The VALIS Trilogy:
    • 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. 1909, Francis Gorham, The Lone Trail at Thirty:
    • 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. 1958, José García Villa, Selected poems and new:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
un-purpose alternative lexicographic

unpurpose en · VERB · etymology 2

Etymology

From un- + purpose.

Meanings

  1. (transitive) To deprive of a purpose; to remove or derail the purpose of.
    • 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? 1906, Arthur Dillon, King Arthur Pendragon:
    • O, Goodness ! help me to unplan that plan, and to unpurpose that purpose ! 1854, Henry H. Tator, Brother Jonathan's Cottage:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
unpurposed Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
unpurposed Tense=Past lexicographic
unpurposes Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
unpurposing Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
un-purpose alternative lexicographic