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unpurpose

unpurpose noun: lack or absence of purpose; purposelessness.

Noun

unpurpose (uncountable)

(rare) Lack or absence of purpose; purposelessness.
- And being. Cant and braggart insolence,
  And inutility and thoughts which veer
  From purpose to unpurpose, and the sneer
  Upon the thin lips of experience,
  Flee from thy sight as snows when the intense
  Sun of forgotten summers greets the year.1909, Francis Gorham, The Lone Trail at Thirty
- Countless demolitions and re-edifications; a thorough unpurpose, so it seems, a thorough futility, that appears to be the truth and what could be more afflicting to an historian?1954, Austryn Wainhouse, Hedyphagetica

Verb

unpurpose (third-person singular simple present unpurposes, present participle unpurposing, simple past and past participle unpurposed)

(transitive) To deprive of a purpose; to remove or derail the purpose of.
- O, Goodness ! help me to unplan that plan, and to unpurpose that purpose !1854, Henry H. Tator, Brother Jonathan's Cottage
- Manifestly so; for by what likelihood
  Had I endured against fourteen knights all armed
  And purposed, I unpurposed and unarmed,
  Save innocency stood my friend?1906, Arthur Dillon, King Arthur Pendragon

Forms of unpurpose

Noun
alternative form	un-purpose
Verb
third-person singular present	unpurposes
present participle	unpurposing
past participle	unpurposed
past	unpurposed

Origin of unpurpose

From un- + purpose.

Questions about unpurpose

What does unpurpose mean?: Unpurpose means lack or absence of purpose; purposelessness.
What part of speech is unpurpose?: Unpurpose can be a noun or a verb.

Words near unpurpose in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: unpurpose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “unpurpose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unpurpose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.