intendment

[in-tend-muhnt]

noun

1. Law.,  the true or correct meaning of something.

2. intention; design; purpose.

intendment

/ ɪnˈtɛndmənt /

noun

1. the meaning of something as fixed or understood by the law

2. obsolete,  intention, design, or purpose

Word History and Origins

Origin of intendment¹

1350–1400; intend + -ment; replacing Middle English entendement < Middle French < Medieval Latin intendimentum

Example Sentences

In the technical language of English law the fee-simple of the glebe is said to be in abeyance, that is, it exists “only in the remembrance, expectation and intendment of the law.”

From Project Gutenberg

Other differences cropped up as to the phraseology of the Wilson Resolution and its legal intendment.

From Project Gutenberg

"It is a general rule that, in regard to offences created by statutes, it is necessary that the defendant be brought within all the material words of the statute; and nothing can be taken by intendment."

From Project Gutenberg

But the decision of Judge Sprague is, in my judgment, quite opposed to that view of the law; and I, must, therefore, present to your honors some considerations which, in my judgment, make this the District, in the intendment of the statute, into which these offenders were first brought, as well as the District in which they were first apprehended.

From Project Gutenberg

We are unable to read in the 14th Amendment . . . any words or intendment which prohibit the state from enacting legislation to preserve the racial integrity of its citizens . . . so that it shall not have a mongrel breed of citizens.

From Time Magazine Archive

Related Words

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• desire 
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• wish