Purport

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  purport
       n 1: the intended meaning of a communication [syn: {intent}, {spirit}]
       2: general meaning or tenor; "caught the drift of the
          conversation" [syn: {drift}]
       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},
           {propose}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  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
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  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.