English

Proper noun

Purvey

1. A surname​.

English

Alternative forms

• puruey (alternative typography, 14th-15th centuries)

Verb

purvey ‎(third-person singular simple present purveys, present participle purveying, simple past and past participle purveyed)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To prepare in advance (for or to do something); to plan, make provision.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter j, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:

     A sayd the kynge / syn ye knowe of your aduenture puruey for hit / and put awey by your craftes that mysauenture / Nay said Merlyn it wylle not be / soo he departed from the kynge

2. (transitive) To furnish or provide.
   • Spenser

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

   • 2005, Lesley Brown, trans. Plato, Sophist, 223d:

     Those who sell their own products are distinguished from purveyors, who purvey what others produce.

3. (transitive) To procure; to get.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     I mean to purvey me a wife after the fashion of the children of Benjamin.

Translations

Related terms

• purveyor
• purview