purposefulness
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pur·pose·ful
(pûr′pəs-fəl)adj.
1. Having a purpose; intentional: a purposeful musician.
2. Having or manifesting purpose; determined: entered the room with a purposeful look.
pur′pose·ful·ly adv.
pur′pose·ful·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Purposefulness
- Came around … deliberately like the gun turret of a great ship —Donald McCaig
- Dedicated as a Japanese artist who has found the flower he must paint all his life —William Mcllvanney
- Deliberate as a bee taking honey —Molly Kean
- Deliberate as a dog sniffing out a buried bone —Anon
- Effort as conscious and deliberate as holding his breath under water —William Peden
From a short story entitled Night in Funland, this refers to a character’s effort to control his emotions.
- Had a plan … simple as Cain’s —Alma and Paul Ellerbe
- His time was organized, planned like the timetable of a battle maneuver —Arthur A. Cohen
- Intent as a cannibal at breakfast —T. Coraghessan Boyle
- Intent as a collector —W. H. Auden
- Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose their direction and begin to bend —Walter Savage Landor
- Method is like packing things in a box; a good packer will get in half as much again as a bad one —Richard Cecil
- Moved like a steamroller, in a straight line, crushing everything that was in her way —Margaret Millar
- My will is like a long pencil, it must be sharpened —Delmore Schwartz
- (I have always envied the man who found one single role and) played it [a role or life plan], clung and grew to it like a barnacle on a ship —George Garrett
See Also: CLINGING
- Rehearsed her sensuality like a summa-cum student —Francine du Plessix Gray
See Also: SEX
- (Somewhere in the earth is a drain of) resolution filling as a fresh teapot —Daniela Gioseffi
- (He had) a resolution in him like an iron bar —Wallace Stegner
- Schemed like Arabs —Thomas McGuane
- (Ruthless and) singleminded as birds of prey —George Garrett
- Used her charm like a tennis racket —Delmore Schwartz
- Will without power is like children playing at soldiers —George Canning
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
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Noun | 1. | purposefulness - the quality of having a definite purpose meaningfulness - the quality of having great value or significance aimlessness, purposelessness - the quality of lacking any definite purpose |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
purposefulness
nounUnwavering firmness of character, action, or will:
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
purposefulness
n → Entschlossenheit f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007