intent

(in-tent’), a. [= OF. intent = Sp. Pg. It. in ten to, intent intent us, m., purpose, intent, ML. also a stretching out, ¢ L. intend ere, pp. intent us, stretch out, intend: see intend. Cf. intent, a.] 1. That which is intended; purpose; aim; design; intention; meaning. Ne no thing wist thai what it ment That thai honurd with gude entent. Holy Rood (E. E. T. 8.), p. 88. I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me? Acts x. 29. He [my guide] too went readily in with me; it may be not knowing my intent was to buy. Dampier, Voyages, IT. i, 91. But Dante recked not of the wine; Whether the women stayed or went, His visage held one stern intent. D. G. Ro etti, Dante at Verona. 2. In law: (a) Personal intention; the. state of mind in respect of intelligent volition; the voluntary purposing of an act: often distinguishable from the motive which led to the formation of the intent. See criminal intent, below. (b) The tendency imputable by law to an act; the constructive purpose of an action, for which the doer may be responsible, although the actual intent was not wrongful: as when a conveyance is said to be intended to defraud creditors, because, although it may have been without actual dishonest intention, it nece arily has that tendency.—3}. Notion; idea; thought; opinion. To myn entent ther is best abydeng, I wote he will be gladde of your comyng. Generydes (E. E. T.8.), 1, 629. 4+. Attention; heed. Awake, dougter myne, And to my talkyng take entent. Early Eng. Poems, p. 141. The le e lyght all-way to the nyght sall take entent. York Plays, p. 11. Criminal intent, the intent to do the criminal act or to omit the duty, if the law makes the act or omi ion an offense, irrespective of whether the person knew of the law, and in many cases irrespective of whether he knew the facts which bring the act or omi ion within the law, and irrespective of motive. Thus, for example, if a person, whether from the motive of pleasure in the noise, or anger at a cat, discharges a firearm from his window in a city with reckle disregard of human life, and kills a person who is unknown to him, within range, the criminal intent is the intelligent purpose to discharge the gun ina highly dangerous manner, as distinguished alike from the motive, from any purpose to violate law, and from any purpose to kill a human being. If he was insane in the legal sense, or if the discharge was accidental, there was no criminal intent; otherwise the intent was criminal, although he had an innocent motive, and was ignorant of the law and of the existence of the bystander.— Specific intent, actual intent.— To all intents and purposes, in every respect; in all applications or senses; in a looser use, practically; substantially, but not literally. To all intents and purposes, he who will not open his eyes is for the present as blind as he that cannot. South, Sermons. intentt, v. t [