The Collaborative International Dictionary
Intent \In*tent"\, n. [OE. entent, entente, attention, purpose, OF. entente, F. entente understanding, meaning; a participial noun, fr. F. & OF. entendre. See Intend.] The act of turning the mind toward an object; hence, a design; a purpose; intention; meaning; drift; aim.
Be thy intents wicked or charitable.
--Shak.
The principal intent of Scripture is to deliver the
laws of duties supernatural.
--Hooker.
To all intents and purposes, in all applications or senses;
practically; really; virtually; in essence; essentially.
``He was miserable to all intents and purpose.''
--L'Estrange.
Syn: Design; purpose; intention; meaning; purport; view; drift; object; end; aim; plan.
Wiktionary
adv. (context idiomatic British English) For every functional purpose; in every practical sense; in every important respect; practically speaking.
WordNet
adv. in every practical sense; "to all intents and purposes the case is closed"; "the rest are for all practical purposes useless" [syn: for all practical purposes, for all intents and purposes]
Usage examples of "to all intents and purposes".
I've no friends left back there, and, to all intents and purposes, I'm dead.
She'd said nothing about the massacre, nothing about the loss of one who was to all intents and purposes close to her.
Oh, yes, you can apply what, to all intents and purposes, are circuit breakers.
On, yes, you can apply what, to all intents and purposes, are circuit breakers.
She'd had the wit to seduce one Ralph Contreras, a man of mixed blood who worked as a gardener for the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Laureltree, and had a stammer of such proportions it to all intents and purposes left him speechless.
This to all intents and purposes established the mainland frontiers of the U.
A living being hit by such a weapon would, to all intents and purposes, simply vanish in a burst of light.
Momentarily he was, to all intents and purposes, as nearly dead as a man can well afford to be.
The tall biker, who had kept his helmet on, was pressing the buttons, to all intents and purposes oblivious of his support.
Every day for over a year Mahlke wore this heavy, to all intents and purposes unbreakable screwdriver on a shoelace, even after we had stopped or almost stopped swimming out to the barge.
The body had, to all intents and purposes, been virtually disassembled, and seemingly by main strength by the perpetrator.