means A purpose or aim — the thing you mean to do, the result you're consciously trying to bring about.

from From Latin intentio, 'a stretching out, a straining toward,' built on intendere — in- ('toward') plus tendere ('to stretch'). The same tendere stretches through tension, tendon, and tent: all of them taut. To intend something, the Romans imagined, was to stretch your mind toward it like a drawn bow. It reached English through Old French in the medieval period, already carrying that sense of the mind aimed and pulled tight at a target.