conspire
Americanverb (used without object)
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to agree together, especially secretly, to do something wrong, evil, or illegal.
They conspired to kill the king.
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to act or work together toward the same result or goal.
The wind and rain conspired to strip the trees of their fall color.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to plan or agree on (a crime or harmful act) together in secret
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(intr) to act together towards some end as if by design
the elements conspired to spoil our picnic
Usage
What does conspire mean? Conspire commonly means to secretly plan with multiple other people to do something wrong, evil, or illegal. Such a plan is called a conspiracy. Conspiracy can also refer to the act of making such plans—the act of conspiring—or to the group making the plans. The people involved can be called conspirators. In a legal context, conspiracy refers to an agreement by two or more people conspiring to commit a crime. Conspire can also mean to act together to achieve some result. This use often likens inanimate objects to people engaging in a conspiracy, as in I was on time until the traffic and the weather conspired to make me late. Example: In the movie, supervillains conspire to steal all of the world’s bananas.
Synonym Usage
See plot.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of conspire
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French conspirer, from Latin conspīrāre “to act in harmony, conspire,” equivalent to con- + spīrāre “to breathe”; see origin at con-, spirant, spirit
Explanation
When you conspire, you collaborate with others to do harm, or maybe just keep something from happening, like a group that conspires to get tuna melts booted from the lunch menu by urging everyone to order other things. You can conspire with someone, meaning you team up with another person to plot against someone else, or you can conspire against someone. This means you devise a scheme to do that person harm. Conspire also can be used in a more figurative sense to describe events that cause problems, like bad weather that may conspire against your picnic plans, or a series of injuries that conspire against a basketball team struggling to make the playoffs.
Vocabulary lists containing conspire
Power Prefix: con-
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1984
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Grade 9, List 5
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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.
Conspire to set the price of the London interbank borrowing rate, or Libor, to the detriment of tens of millions of corporate and individual borrowers the world over?
From New York Times • May 28, 2015
Conspire to build a 23,000-tonne doughnut-shaped vessel called a tokamak, that is wrapped with 80,000km of superconducting wire, all to contain the plasma magnetically and, for the first time, produce fusion energy continuously.
From Economist • Sep. 18, 2014
What have I done, 52 What have I been, that thus the favouring gods And the consentient strength of hostile States Conspire to make me happy?
From Gycia A Tragedy in Five Acts by Morris, Lewis, Sir
For all the elements, and all the powers Celestial, nay, terrestrial, and infernal, Conspire the wreck of out-cast Œdipus!
From The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 06 by Scott, Walter, Sir
Banish from among you nets and snares and painful artifices, Conspire no longer against the birds, nor scare the meek deer, nor hide with fraud the crooked hook; . . . .
From The Golden Age Cook Book by Dwight, Henrietta Latham
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.
