Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Invent
In-vent′
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Invented
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Inventing
.] [L.
inventus
, p. p. of invenire
to come upon, to find, invent; pref. in-
in + venire
to come, akin to E. come
: cf. F. inventer
. See Come
.] 1.
To come or light upon; to meet; to find.
[Obs.]
And vowed never to return again,
Till him alive or dead she did
Till him alive or dead she did
invent
. Spenser.
2.
To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; – applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine.
Thus first Necessity
invented
stools. Cowper.
3.
To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; – in a good or a bad sense;
as, to
invent
the machinery of a poem; to invent
a falsehood.Whate’er his cruel malice could
invent
. Milton.
Syn. – To discover; contrive; devise; frame; design; fabricate; concoct; elaborate. See
Discover
. Webster 1828 Edition
Invent
INVENT'
,Verb.
T.
1.
To find out something new; to devise something not before known; to contrive and produce something that did not before exist; as, to invent a new instrument of music; to invent a machine for spinning; to invent gunpowder. [See Invention.]2.
To forge; to fabricate; to contrive falsely; as, to invent falsehoods.3.
To feign; to frame by the imagination; as, to invent the machinery of a poem.4.
To light on; to meet with. [This is the literal sense, but not now used.]Definition 2024
invent
invent
English
Verb
invent (third-person singular simple present invents, present participle inventing, simple past and past participle invented)
- To design a new process or mechanism.
- After weeks of hard work, I invented a new way to alphabetize matchbooks.
- To create something fictional for a particular purpose.
- I knew I had to invent an excuse, and quickly.
- We need a name to put in this form, so let's just invent one.
- (obsolete) To come upon; to find; to find out; to discover.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vi:
- Far off he wonders, what them makes so glad, / If Bacchus merry fruit they did inuent [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.vi:
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
design a new process or mechanism
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create something fictional
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