▪ I. perpend, v. arch.
(pəˈpɛnd)
[ad. L. perpendĕre to weigh exactly, ponder, consider, f. per- 2 + pendĕre to weigh, pay, ponder.]
1. a. trans. To weigh mentally, ponder, consider, examine, investigate. (With simple obj. or obj. cl.)
| 1527–8 Fox Let. to Gardiner in Strype Eccl. Mem. (1721) I. App. xxvi. 79 My Lords grace..perpending and pondering the exoneration of his own conscience. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, iv. iv. 8 Perpend my words O Signieur Dewe, and marke. 1660 H. More Myst. Godl. x. ii. 496 They being not at leisure to perpend things to the bottom. 1762 Sterne Tr. Shandy VI. xvi, There are a thousand resolutions..weighed, poised, and perpended. 1821 Byron Juan v. lxxii, I shall perpend if your proposal may Be such as I can properly accept. 1930 J. Buchan Castle Gay xi. 172 He retired to the inn..to write out his notes and perpend the situation. 1939 Joyce Finnegans Wake i. 187 Perpending that Putterick O'Purcell pulls the coald stoane out of Winterwater's and Silder Seas sing for Harreng our Keng. 1966 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept vii. 172 The chapters in Professor Hofrichter's book..should be carefully perpended by those who fail even yet to see the full significance of Ezra Pound's great slogan: ‘Make it new!’ |
b. absol. or intr.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. v. i. 307 Therefore, perpend my Princesse, and giue eare. 1848 Blackw. Mag. LXIV. 107 Perpend upon this..at your leisure. 1868 W. R. Greg Lit. & Soc. Judgm. 152 They are..too impatient to perpend and reflect. |
† 2. To weigh in a balance. (A Latinism.) Obs.
| 1660 Stanley Hist. Philos. ix. (1701) 375/2 He thinks how long Cancer the day extends, And Capricorn the night: Himself perpends In a just ballance, that no flaw there be, Nothing exuberant, but that all agree. |
Hence perˈpending vbl. n.; † perˈpendment.
| 1667 Waterhouse Fire Lond. 48 Great enterprises alwayes requiring grave perpendment of the method. 1681 R. Fleming Fulfill. Script. (1801) I. 246 O that these would but by a serious perpending consider the work of the Lord. 1868 F. E. Paget Lucretia 190, I had barely finished my perpendings and explorations, when [etc.]. |
▪ II. perpend
obs. form of parpen.