mean to

Idioms  

1. Intend to, as in I meant to go running this morning but got up too late, or I'm sorry I broke it—I didn't mean to. This idiom was first recorded in 1560.

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Example Sentences

What does it mean to label a call for equality “antisemitic”? Let us interrogate this accusation.

From Slate

"He didn't mean to hurt me," he said.

From BBC

In a consideration of “what Jews mean to America,” Rabbi Soloveichik quotes Jonathan Sacks, the British rabbi: “Israel, ancient and modern, and the United States are the two supreme examples of societies constructed in conscious pursuit of an idea.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Surrounded by toys, photographs and cats in the family home in Timperley, Greater Manchester, he says you can never tell your loved ones too often how much they mean to you.

From BBC

“How are you feeling?” and “I’ll ride with you if you’re feeling unsafe” texts sent between friends, neighbors, and comrades, the record-breaking amount of blood donations given these past few days, and the rejection of violent hatred as abject, alien, and fundamentally un-Australian—this is what it has always meant, and will continue to mean, to be what we call “True Blue.”

From Slate