intendment
(ɪnˈtɛndmənt)
Forms: α. 4–7 entend(e)ment. β. 6–7 intende-, 6– intendment.
[a. F. entendement understanding, formerly also, meaning, interpretation, view, opinion, end, intention (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), f. entendre: see intend v., and cf. intendiment.]
† 1. The faculty or action of understanding. Obs.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 1668 (1696) Mannes hed ymagynen ne kan Nentendement considere..This cruwel peynes of þis sorwful man. c 1384 ― H. Fame ii. 475 More clere entendement Nas never yit y-sent. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) v. i. (1859) 74 His werkes ben infynyte..so that none entendement ne may them vnderstande. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1963 Mi maister Chaucer, flour of eloquence, Mirour of fructuous entendement. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. A iij, By corruption of this our fleshe mans reason and entendement were both overwhelmed. 1601 Gill Trinity in Sacr. Philos. (1625) 218 The intendment of man worketh nothing in the thing conceived. |
† 2. Way of understanding (something); conception or interpretation of a matter; view. In later use passing into 4. Obs.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 105 He saith in his entendement, That yet there is an element Above the foure. 1485 Caxton Paris & V. 91 After thentendement of somme men. 1548 Bodrugan (Adams) Epit. King's Title Pref. in Compl. Scot. (1872) App. iv. 248 Such plentie of writers..could not by any entendement so fully consent vpon any vntruth. 1625 Donne Serm. xii. 113 The whole Congregation is, oftentimes, in common entendment conformable, and well setled in all matters of Doctrine. 1630 Sanderson Serm., ad Mag. II. 258 To take away a Mans substance..is..to common intendment all one as to take away the very Life itself. |
3. Meaning conveyed or intended; signification; import. Now rare or Obs.
double entendement, ‘double meaning’, the equivocal use of a word or phrase which has two senses. Cf. double entendre, and see double a. 2.
| 1390 Gower Conf. I. 179 A tale of greet entendement I thenke telle for thi sake. c 1399 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 13 The pes..schal with wordes pleine, Withouten eny double entendement Be treted. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI 172 Fye on doble entendement. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry i. i. (1611) 5 Words of large intendment and signification. 1767 Poetry in Ann. Reg. 235 Studious to expound Their dark intendment. 1879 N. & Q. 5th Ser. XII. 344 A phrase of sinister and odious intendment. |
4. Law. The construction put upon anything by the common law; the sense in which the law understands a thing; true meaning as fixed by law.
common intendment, customary or reasonable interpretation, as determined by the law. (Cf. 2.)
| 1574 tr. Littleton's Tenures 119 The righte of fee simple is in abeiance, that is to say alonely in the remembrance, entendemente and consideration of the lawe. a 1577 Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. (1609) 117 The Ordinary (which is the Bishop by common intendment). 1613 Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 354 A man may be a Knight that hath no freehold: So cannot an Earle or Lord by common entendement. 1747 Carte Hist. Eng. I. 295 All the possessions..which had been always either in express terms, or by common intendment of law understood to be exempted. 1780 M. Madan Thelyphthora I. 165 With respect to the moral intendment of those laws. 1885 Law Rep. 14 Q. Bench Div. 250 Every intendment ought to be made in favour of long continued usage. 1897 Bryce Impr. S. Africa 155 Britain still claimed that they were, in strict intendment of law, British subjects. |
† 5. The act or fact of intending; will, purpose, intent; that which is intended, an intention; a design, project. Obs.
| 1450–80 tr. Secreta Secret. (E.E.T.S.) 35 He owith to be a man of good feith and trewe, and wijs to know thyn entendement. c 1470 Harding Chron. ccxi. ii, [He] was full lyke It to haue destroyed by theyr entendment. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. ii. 144 We..feare the maine intendment of the Scot. c 1630 Risdon Surv. Devon (1714) II. 261 The Spaniards had Intelligence of his Intendments. a 1703 Burkitt On N.T., Heb. x. 4 The intendment of our Apostle in these words, is to prove that [etc.]. 1804 Fessenden Democr. (1806) I. 165 To state the motives and intendments, In constitutional amendments. |
† b. The purpose, design, or object of anything. Obs.
| 1626 Jackson Creed viii. xiii. §1 The Law, whose true intendment alwayes is to make all men willing to doe to others, as they desire should bee done unto them. 1680 Burnet Rochester (1692) 112 Friendship and Converse were among the Primitive Intendments of Marriage. 1732 Neal Hist. Purit. I. 414 It was not the intendment of the Act of Supremacy, to invest any new powers in the Crown. |
† 6. Tendency, inclination; also, the general character or nature (of a thing). Obs.
| 1509 Hawes Joyf. Medit. xi, To auaryce he had entendement. 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary i. (1625) 23 The Epistles..bee commonly without addition at all, either of praise or mislike, or any other intendment. 1620 T. Granger Div. Logike 56 The Sunne hardeneth clay..from the nature of the clay, not intendment in the Sunne. |
† 7. A charge, an office of supervision. Obs.
| 1638 Ford Fancies i. i, Well he merited Th' intendments o'er the gallies at Leghorn, Made grand collector of the customs there. |