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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

pur·vey

Audio Help [per-vey] Pronunciation Key

–verb (used with object)

to provide, furnish, or supply (esp. food or provisions) usually as a business or service.

[Origin: 1250–1300; ME purveien < AF purveier < L prōvidére to foresee, provide for. See provide

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Purvey

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

pur·vey Audio Help (pər-vā', pûr'vā') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. pur·veyed, pur·vey·ing, pur·veys

To supply (food, for example); furnish.
To advertise or circulate.

[Middle English purveien, from Anglo-Norman purveier, from Latin prōvidēre; see provide.]

pur·vey'ance n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
purvey

c.1290, from O.Fr. porveoir "to provide," from L. providere (see provide, which now usually replaces it). Agent noun purveyor (c.1300) is from O.Fr. porveour (13c.), from porveoir.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

purvey
verb
supply with provisions [syn: provision]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Purvey

Pro*vide"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Provided; p. pr. & vb. n. Providing.] [L. providere, provisum; pro before + videre to see. See Vision, and cf. Prudent, Purvey.]

1. To look out for in advance; to procure beforehand; to get, collect, or make ready for future use; to prepare. "Provide us all things necessary." --Shak.

2. To supply; to afford; to contribute.

Bring me berries, or such cooling fruit As the kind, hospitable woods provide. --Milton.

3. To furnish; to supply; -- formerly followed by of, now by with. "And yet provided him of but one." --Jer. Taylor. "Rome . . . was well provided with corn." --Arbuthnot.

4. To establish as a previous condition; to stipulate; as, the contract provides that the work be well done.

5. To foresee.

Note: [A Latinism] [Obs.] --B. Jonson.

6. To appoint to an ecclesiastical benefice before it is vacant. See Provisor. --Prescott.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Purvey

Pur*vey"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Purveyed; p. pr. & vb. n. Purveying.] [OE. purveien, porveien, OF. porveeir, porveoir, F. pourvoir, fr. L. providere. See Provide, and cf. Purview.]

1. To furnish or provide, as with a convenience, provisions, or the like.

Give no odds to your foes, but do purvey Yourself of sword before that bloody day. --Spenser.

2. To procure; to get.

I mean to purvey me a wife after the fashion of the children of Benjamin. --Sir W. Scot.

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