sb. [f. FORE- pref. + PURPOSE.] A purpose settled beforehand, previous design. Similarly Forepurpose v. trans., to purpose beforehand; Forepurposed ppl. a.
1551. T. Wilson, Logike (1580), 43. A fore purposed choice.
1581. J. Merbecke, A Booke of Notes and Common places, 128. It is nothing els but his eternall determination fore purposed in his brest.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, ix. 121. I demaund of thee whether he doth them vpon new deuise, or vppon euerlasting forepurpose. Ibid., 135. To haue brought to passe and perfected al that euer he had forepurposed, betokeneth an incomparable might and power.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XX. 17.
| Thou know’st this council by the rest of these fore-purposes | |
| That still inclin’d me. |
1829. Southey, Sir T. More, I. 105. The just medium between too much superintendance and too little,..the mystery whereby the free will of the subject is preserved, while it is directed by the fore purpose of the state, (which is the secret of true polity)…is yet to be found out.
