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Webster 1913 Edition


Contrive

Con-trive′

(kŏn-trīv′)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Contrived
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Contriving
.]
[OE.
contriven
,
contreven
,
controven
, to invent, OF.
controver
,
contruver
;
con-
+
trouver
to find. See
Troubadour
,
trover
.]
To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to invent; to design; to plan.
What more likely to
contrive
this admirable frame of the universe than infinite wisdom.
Tillotson.
Syn. – To invent; discover; plan; design; project; plot; concert; hatch.

Con-trive′

,
Verb.
I.
To make devices; to form designs; to plan; to scheme; to plot.
The Fates with traitors do
contrive
.
Shakespeare
Thou hast
contrived
against th very life
Of the defendant.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition


Contrive

CONTRIVE

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To invent; to devise; to plan.
Our poet has always some beautiful design, which he first establishes, and then contrives the means which will naturally conduct him to his end.
2.
To wear out.
[This must be from the L. Contero, contrivi, and if the French controuver, and Italian controvare, are the same word differently applied, the primary sense is, to invent by rubbing, that is, by ruminating; or to strike out, as in forge. But the word is probably from trouver, to find.]

CONTRIVE

,
Verb.
I.
To form or design; to plan; to scheme.
How shall we contrive to hide our shame? [This verb is really transitive, but followed by a verb, in the place of an object or name.]

Definition 2024


contrive

contrive

English

Verb

contrive (third-person singular simple present contrives, present participle contriving, simple past and past participle contrived)

  1. To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to plan; to scheme; to plot.
    • Hawthorne
      Neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life.
    • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Modern Library Edition (1995), page 154
      [] I cannot bear the idea of two young women traveling post by themselves. It is highly improper. You must contrive to send somebody.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess:
      With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.
  2. To invent, to make devices; to form designs especially by improvisation.
  3. To project, cast, or set forth, as in a projection of light.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations