connive
Americanverb (used without object)
-
connives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
connived,
past participle, past
-
conniving
present participle
-
to cooperate secretly; conspire (often followed bywith ).
They connived to take over the business.
-
to avoid noticing something that one is expected to oppose or condemn; give aid to wrongdoing by forbearing to act or speak (usually followed byat ).
The policeman connived at traffic violations.
-
to be indulgent toward something others oppose or criticize (usually followed byat ).
to connive at childlike exaggerations.
verb
-
to plot together, esp secretly; conspire
-
(foll by at) law to give assent or encouragement (to the commission of a wrong)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
connivesimple
-
connivessimple
-
have connivedperfect
-
has connivedperfect
-
am connivingprogressive
-
are connivingprogressive
-
is connivingprogressive
-
have been connivingperfect progressive
-
has been connivingperfect progressive
Past
-
connivedsimple
-
had connivedperfect
-
was connivingprogressive
-
were connivingprogressive
-
had been connivingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of connive
1595–1605; (< French conniver ) < Latin co ( n ) nīvēre to close the eyes in sleep, turn a blind eye, equivalent to con- con- + -nīvēre, akin to nictāre to blink ( cf. nictitate)
Explanation
To connive is to plan or plot to do something illegal or wrong. Conniving is considered dishonest and cowardly. If someone accuses you of conniving, that's definitely not a compliment. Conniving usually occurs in secret, and people who connive are up to no good. Criminals planning a bank robbery are conniving. Crooked politicians looking for a bribe are conniving. Villains connive, and conniving is associated with conspiracies and dishonesty. The opposite of conniving is being honest and straightforward.
Vocabulary lists containing connive
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Advanced English Words
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"The Censors," Vocabulary from the short story
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It stars Brian Cox as the Roy family patriarch and Jeremy Strong as one of his children, who connive to succeed their father as the company’s leader.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
Actually, she doesn't and she will manipulate, exploit and connive anyone without giving it a second thought if it serves her best interests.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2022
Their claims have been amplified in recent weeks, as the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal revealed how well-off families connive to get kids into selective colleges.
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2019
As an absurdly glamorous Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo connive and rob their way to the South of France, the result is both unlike any other movie and oddly similar to 10,000 other movies.
From New York Times ● Dec. 18, 2015
Why not, she argued, connive at the Englishwoman’s escape, and let it become known that she had fled back to Meerut?
From The Red Year A Story of the Indian Mutiny by Louis Tracy
A woman connives to make her husband jealous when his secretive actions lead her to believe him unfaithful.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 24, 2020
It’s a con-artist film — poor family connives its way into jobs serving a younger, wealthy quartet — and the con rides an elevator from comically to tragically desperate.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2020
“The trade connives at its own irrelevance. This lifestyle stuff, the preponderance of comment over disclosure. If we aren’t telling people things that make them go, ‘Crikey’, what’s the point?”
From The Guardian ● Oct. 15, 2016
To wrap things up: House connives to get Park to disobey an order he knows is wrong so that she will learn to stand up for herself.
From Time ● Nov. 1, 2011
He connives, however, at the affair, the conspirators disperse, the prince embarks, and Redgauntlet becomes the prior of a monastery abroad.
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
Murdaugh’s lawyers contend that Hill connived to have a juror removed—the so-called Egg Lady—because Hill feared she wasn’t inclined to convict.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 24, 2026
Make no mistake: The newspaper industry connived in its own decline.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2022
But for years she waylaid me on the street to complain and raised that incident at meetings to prove the editors connived with the paid Coop staff to prevent pro-democracy voices from being heard.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2022
In closing arguments to the jury, Freedman said Wright schemed and connived to “steal from his dead best friend with forgery and lies.”
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 6, 2021
Bono had, I ascertained, connived to secrete them when we had removed to this house from the town; having no use for them upon his exile, he had left them for me.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
"Damon's Odysseus is stubborn, overconfident and sacrilegious, but doesn't bear that much resemblance to the conniving, hypocritical egotist of lore who fretted over his wife's fidelity," she noted.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
SantaCon’s conniving leader gives New Yorkers another reason to hate the yearly bar crawl.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2026
I love their coach, their quarterback, their coolness, their momentum, their journey without the conniving Bill Belichick.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2026
"Marty Supreme," starring Oscars frontrunner Timothee Chalamet as a conniving 1950s table tennis player with big dreams, finished in fifth place at $6.7 million.
From Barron's ● Jan. 18, 2026
“He’s been a source of conniving and cajolery in this community long enough,” Mrs. Larkin continued.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
