contrive
to plan with ingenuity; devise; invent: The author contrived a clever plot.
to bring about or effect by a plan, scheme, or the like; manage: He contrived to gain their votes.
to plot (evil, treachery, etc.).
to form designs; plan.
to plot.
Origin of contrive
1synonym study For contrive
Other words for contrive
Other words from contrive
- con·triv·a·ble, adjective
- con·triv·er, noun
- pre·con·trive, verb, pre·con·trived, pre·con·triv·ing.
- un·con·triv·ing, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use contrive in a sentence
This contriver of miracles, of a countenance at once sanctimonious, artful and sly, preceded other prelates carrying banners.
The Pilgrim's Shell or Fergan the Quarryman | Eugne SueBlack Will had been mutilated, and Walker nearly drowned, but "the close contriver of all harms" had kept out of harm's way.
It Is Never Too Late to Mend | Charles ReadeWho was John McDonogh, the maker of the foregoing will, and contriver of such a grand scheme of charity?
If I wasn't such a good contriver, we should look more like paupers than respectable people.
Grif | B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) FarjeonAmphares, the chief of these, and the contriver of the plot, was one of the new ephori created after the deposition of Agesilaus.
Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks | Edward Wortley Montagu
British Dictionary definitions for contrive
/ (kənˈtraɪv) /
(tr) to manage (something or to do something), esp by means of a trick; engineer: he contrived to make them meet
(tr) to think up or adapt ingeniously or elaborately: he contrived a new mast for the boat
to plot or scheme (treachery, evil, etc)
Origin of contrive
1Derived forms of contrive
- contrivable, adjective
- contriver, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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