Adjacent Words

Contrived definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CONTRIVED, pp. Invented; planned; devised.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: showing effects of planning or manipulation; "a novel with a contrived ending"
2: artificially formal; "that artificial humility that her husband hated"; "contrived coyness"; "a stilted letter of acknowledgment"; "when people try to correct their speech they develop a stilted pronunciation" [syn: artificial, contrived, hokey, stilted]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 15th century artificial, labored <a contrived plot>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. planned so carefully as to seem unnatural; artificial, forced (the plot seemed contrived).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Contrive Con*trive", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Contrived; p. pr. & vb. n. Contriving.] [OE. contriven, contreven, controven, to invent, OF. controver, contruver; con- + trouver to find. See Troubadour, trover.] To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to invent; to design; to plan. What more likely to contrive this admirable frame of the universe than infinite wisdom. --Tillotson. neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life. --Hawthorne. Syn: To invent; discover; plan; design; project; plot; concert; hatch.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you say that something someone says or does is contrived, you think it is false and deliberate, rather than natural and not planned. There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said... It mustn't sound like a contrived compliment. = artificial ? spontaneous ADJ [disapproval] 2. If you say that the plot of a play, film, or novel is contrived, you mean that it is unlikely and unconvincing. The plot seems contrived. ADJ [disapproval]