Contrive
[kən'traɪv]
Definition
(v. t.) To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to invent; to design; to plan.
(v. i.) To make devices; to form designs; to plan; to scheme; to plot.
Checked by Lionel
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Devise, plan, design, invent, project, hatch, brew, form, frame, concoct, COMPASS, fall upon, hit upon, strike out, chalk out.
v. n. Scheme, plot, plan, consider, set one's wits to work, rack one's brains, cudgel one's brains, strain one's invention, cast about.
Editor: Warren
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Plan, design, arrange, fabricate, adapt, manage, scheme, devise, concert,adjust
ANT:Hit, hazard, run, chance, venture, bungle, overvault, overdo
Checked by Curtis
Definition
v.t. (obs.) to spend as time.
v.t. to plan: to invent: to bring about or effect: to plot.—adj. Contriv′able that may be contrived.—ns. Contriv′ance Contrive′ment act of contriving: the thing contrived: invention: design: artifice; Contriv′er a schemer a manager.
Checked by Hillel
Examples
- Ada would contrive to take him, somehow, he said. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Do pray contrive to get acquainted with them. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- He would analyze his own machinations: elaborately contrive plots, and forthwith indulge in explanatory boasts of their skill. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- But I was so much displeased, that I entreated Glumdalclitch to contrive some excuse for not seeing that young lady any more. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- We could iv'ry one be a Wellington--that would please ye, Mr. Helstone--and sich paragraphs as we could contrive for t' papers! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The French were among the first to contrive such regulators,--Duboscq, Foucault, Serrin, Houdin, and Lontin invented most useful forms of such apparatus. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- You must contrive to send somebody. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- But the queen had before contrived another project. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- We have used for a number of years in this laboratory a form of constant water bath which was contrived by Mr. Edward Bogardus, formerly chemist to the New Jersey State Geological Survey. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- To me it was, and ever must be an enigma, how they contrived to spend so much time in doing so little. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- A man, for instance, is vain of a beautiful house, which belongs to him, or which he has himself built and contrived. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Yes, answered I, putting my hand into his, and again I contrived to forget Lady W----. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- I generally contrived to reserve a moiety of this bounteous repast for myself; but the remainder I was invariably obliged to part with. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- She procured plain work; she plaited straw; and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- They will talk of it freely, even before others whose pockets they are thus contriving to pick by this piece of knavery. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- To these scanty means of improvement, she added another of her own contriving. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Then arose the necessity of contriving some form of bridge of extensive span that would be sufficiently strong and rigid for railway trains to pass over them in safety. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- It's my sister's contriving. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- He's a very contriving chap is our William. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Wonderful ingenuity has been shown in contriving a means to enable people to ascend the Wetterhorn Mountain in Switzerland. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- At this very moment he is wild to see you, and occupied only in contriving the means for doing so, and for making his pleasure conduce to yours. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- But how she contrives it without reflecting on the character of her own father, who had himself two wives, I know not. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- He contrives and finishes a canoe by the help of a fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a venture. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
Typed by Hector