verb
-
to devise, invent, or contrive
-
to think out in detail
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of excogitate
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin excōgitātus, past participle of excōgitāre “to devise, invent, think out”; see ex- 1, cogitate
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:
In fact, it must require a considerable effort to excogitate novel labor-saving devices.
From By Water to the Columbian Exposition by Wisthaler, Johanna S.
And to speak generally, in regard of things celestial he set his face against attempts to excogitate the machinery by which the divine power formed its several operations.
From The Memorabilia by Dakyns, Henry Graham
Pending her appearance, he filled the spirit-stove, put the kettle on to boil, and lighting a cigarette, sat himself down to watch the pot and excogitate his several problems.
From The Lone Wolf A Melodrama by Vance, Louis Joseph
It was long before little Isie got to sleep, what with attempting to realize the actual condition of Alec Forbes, and trying to excogitate the best means for his deliverance.
From Alec Forbes of Howglen by MacDonald, George
The writers who used these expressions did not mean that as reason is given by God, so whatever reason may excogitate is the word of God.
From History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology by Hurst, J. F. (John Fletcher)
Last month, having excogitated 290 questions and created perhaps the most elaborate thinking test ever devised, they stunned a group of the nation's smartest high-school graduates with it.
From Time Magazine Archive
This is the most perfect form of absolutism ever yet excogitated in any man's brains.
From Letters From Rome on the Council by D?llinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von
He rubbed the warm pipe bowl against his cheek and excogitated the matter in deep humility.
From Septimus by Locke, William John
His defenders have here excogitated a most ingenious plea.
From The Color Line A Brief in Behalf of the Unborn by Smith, William Benjamin
When the idea is accepted odd devices are excogitated by the active little brain for making it intelligible.
From Children's Ways by Sully, James
It features essays by 22 scholars, all solemnly excogitating on such weighty matters as whether the horseshoes in his pictures are from dray horses or Thoroughbreds.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hence, too, it is that we hunt through the mental train, excogitating from the present or some other, and from similar or contrary or coadjacent.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens" by Various
It is a marvellous thing that they who engage in excogitating this kind of double-meaning literature about bimetallism, should suppose that the people can any longer be deluded with it.
From The Arena Volume 18, No. 93, August, 1897 by Various
He set about excogitating an alphabet; but actually forgot to give names to his letters, which afterwards baffled him before literary men.
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 by Disraeli, Isaac
An execrable Triumvirate—a scandalum magnatum to all public bodies: I suppose they and their adherents are now sitting in Pandemonium, excogitating their diabolical machinations against us.
From The Politician Out-Witted by Moses, Montrose Jonas
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.
