purport

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: pur=port

CIDE DICTIONARY

purport, n. [OF. purport; pur, pour, for (L. pro) + porter to bear, carry. See Port demeanor.].

•  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."  [1913 Webster]
•  Disguise; covering.  [1913 Webster]

  "For she her sex under that strange purport
  Did use to hide."  [1913 Webster]

purport, v. t. [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."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

purport, v. & n.
--v.tr.
1 profess; be intended to seem (purports to be the royal seal).
2 (often foll. by that + clause) (of a document or speech) have as its meaning; state.
--n.
1 the ostensible meaning of something.
2 the sense or tenor (of a document or statement).

Derivative

purportedly adv.

Etymology

ME f. AF & OF purport, porport f. purporter f. med.L proportare (as PRO-(1), portare carry)

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

purport

Meaning

N meaning, signification, significance, sense, expression, import, purport, force, drift, tenor, spirit, bearing, coloring, scope, substance, gist, essence, marrow, spirit, matter, subject, subject matter, argument, text, sum and substance, general meaning, broad meaning, substantial meaning, colloquial meaning, literal meaning, plain meaning, simple meaning, natural meaning, unstrained meaning, true meaning, honest meaning, &c 543 prima facie meaning, letter of the law, literally, after acceptation, synonym, implication, allusion, suggestion, figure of speech, acceptation, meaning, expressive, suggestive, allusive, significant, significative, significatory, pithy, full of meaning, pregnant with meaning, declaratory, intelligible, literal, synonymous, tantamount, implied, explicit, to that effect, that is to say.

VB mean, signify, express, import, purport, convey, imply, breathe, indicate, bespeak, bear a sense, tell of, speak of, touch on, point to, allude to, drive at, involve, declare, understand by.