Adjacent Words

Contrivance definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CONTRIVANCE, n. [See Contrive.]
1. The act of inventing, devising or planning.
There is no work impossible to these contrivances.
2. The thing invented or planned; a scheme; plan; disposition of parts or causes by design.
Our bodies are made according to the most orderly contrivance.
3. Artifice; plot; scheme.
He has managed his contrivance well.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a device or control that is very useful for a particular job [syn: appliance, contraption, contrivance, convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo, widget]
2: the faculty of contriving; inventive skill; "his skillful contrivance of answers to every problem"
3: an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade; "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track" [syn: contrivance, stratagem, dodge]
4: an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.; "the plot contained too many improbable contrivances to be believable"
5: any improvised arrangement for temporary use [syn: lash-up, contrivance]
6: the act of devising something [syn: devisal, contrivance]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: circa 1628 1. a. a thing contrived; especially a mechanical device b. an artificial arrangement or development 2. the act or faculty of contriving ; the state of being contrived

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 something contrived, esp. a mechanical device or a plan. 2 an act of contriving, esp. deceitfully. 3 inventive capacity.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Contrivance Con*triv"ance, n. 1. The act or faculty of contriving, inventing, devising, or planning. The machine which we are inspecting demonstrates, by its construction, contrivance and design. Contrivance must have had a contriver. --Paley. 2. The thing contrived, invented, or planned; disposition of parts or causes by design; a scheme; plan; atrifice; arrangement. Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. --Burke. Syn: Device; plan; scheme; invention; machine; project; design; artifice; shift. See Device.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(contrivances) 1. If you describe something as a contrivance, you disapprove of it because it is unnecessary and artificial. (FORMAL) They wear simple clothes and shun modern contrivances... Music with a tendency towards contrivance and lack of substance. N-VAR [disapproval] 2. A contrivance is an unfair or dishonest scheme or trick to gain an advantage for yourself. ...some contrivance to raise prices. = ploy N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Design, designing power, inventiveness, invention. 2. Invention, device, piece of mechanism, machine. 3. Device, scheme, plan, plot, artifice, stratagem, complot, machination.

Moby Thesaurus

Charlie McCarthy, action, ad hoc measure, agent, anagnorisis, ancilla, angle, answer, apparatus, appliance, approach, architectonics, architecture, argument, arrangement, art, artful dodge, artifice, atmosphere, attack, authorship, background, beginning, blind, blueprint, blueprinting, brainchild, cabal, calculation, catastrophe, characterization, charting, chicanery, coinage, collusion, color, complication, complicity, complot, conception, concoction, confederacy, connivance, conspiracy, continuity, contraption, contriving, countermove, counterplot, coup, course of action, covin, craft, creation, creative effort, creature, cute trick, deceit, deep-laid plot, demarche, denouement, design, development, device, devising, disposition, dodge, dummy, dupe, effort, engineering, enterprise, envisagement, episode, expedient, fable, fabrication, fakement, falling action, feint, fetch, figuring, finagling, finesse, foresight, forethought, frame-up, gadget, gambit, game, generation, gimcrack, gimmick, gizmo, go-between, graphing, grift, ground plan, guidelines, hand tool, handmaid, handmaiden, hatching, idea, implement, improvisation, incident, instrument, intention, interagent, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, intrigue, invention, jugglery, jury-rig, jury-rigged expedient, knavery, last expedient, last resort, last shift, layout, lever, line, lineup, little game, local color, long-range plan, machination, makeshift, making do, maneuver, maneuvering, manipulation, mapping, master plan, means, measure, mechanical device, mechanism, mediator, medium, method, methodology, midwife, minion, mintage, mood, motif, move, movement, mythos, operations research, organ, organization, origination, pawn, peripeteia, pis aller, plan, planning, planning function, plaything, plot, plotting, ploy, power tool, prearrangement, precision tool, procedure, program, program of action, puppet, racket, rationalization, recognition, red herring, resort, resource, rigging, rising action, ruse, schedule, schema, schematism, schematization, scheme, scheme of arrangement, schemery, scheming, secondary plot, servant, setup, shake-up, shift, slant, slave, sleight, solution, speed tool, step, stooge, stopgap, story, stratagem, strategic plan, strategy, stroke, stroke of policy, structure, subject, subplot, subterfuge, switch, system, systematization, tactic, tactical plan, tactics, temporary expedient, the big picture, the picture, thematic development, theme, tone, tool, topic, toy, trick, trickery, trump, twist, underplot, utensil, vehicle, way, web of intrigue, wile, wily device, wire-pulling, working hypothesis, working plan, working proposition