[syn: aim, purpose, purport, propose]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Purport \Pur"port\, n. [OF. purport; pur, pour, for (L. pro) +
porter to bear, carry. See Port demeanor.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Design or tendency; meaning; import; tenor.
[1913 Webster]
The whole scope and purport of that dialogue.
Norris.
With a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell. -- Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Disguise; covering. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
For she her sex under that strange purport
Did use to hide. --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Purport \Pur"port\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Purported; p. pr. &
vb. n. Purporting.] [OF. purporter, pourporter. See
Purport, n.]
To intend to show; to intend; to mean; to signify; to import;
-- often with an object clause or infinitive.
[1913 Webster]
They in most grave and solemn wise unfolded
Matter which little purported. --Rowe.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
purport
n 1: the intended meaning of a communication [syn: intent,
purport, spirit]
2: the pervading meaning or tenor; "caught the general drift of
the conversation" [syn: drift, purport]
v 1: have the often specious appearance of being, intending, or
claiming; "The letter purports to express people's opinion"
2: propose or intend; "I aim to arrive at noon" [syn: aim,
purpose, purport, propose]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
108 Moby Thesaurus words for "purport":
academic, acceptation, affective meaning, aim, aim at, allege,
aspire after, aspire to, avow, be after, bearing, burden, claim,
coloring, connotation, consequence, core, denotation, design,
desire, destine, determine, drift, drive at, effect, essence,
extension, force, gist, go for, grammatical meaning,
harbor a design, have every intention, idea, impact, implication,
import, intend, intendment, intension, lexical meaning,
literal meaning, matter, mean, meaning, meat, message, ostensible,
overtone, pertinence, pith, plan, point, postulated,
practical consequence, presupposed, pretend, pretended, pretext,
profess, professed, project, propose, protest too much, purported,
purpose, range of meaning, real meaning, reference, referent,
relation, relevance, reputed, resolve, rumored, scope,
semantic cluster, semantic field, sense, significance,
significancy, signification, significatum, signifie, so-called,
span of meaning, speculative, spirit, structural meaning,
substance, sum, sum and substance, supposed, suppositional,
suppositive, suspected, symbolic meaning, tenor, theoretical,
think, thrust, totality of associations, transferred meaning,
unadorned meaning, understanding, undertone, upshot, value
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
PURPORT, pleading. This word means the substance of a writing, as it appears
on the face of it, to the eye that reads it; it differs from tenor. (q.v.),
2 Russ. on Cr. 365; 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 235; 1 East, R. 179, and the cases in
the notes.