CONNIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does connive mean? 

• CONNIVE (verb)
  The verb CONNIVE has 2 senses:

1. encourage or assent to illegally or criminally

2. form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner

  Familiarity information: CONNIVE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONNIVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they connive    ... he / she / it connives   
Past simple: connived   
Past participle: connived   
-ing form: conniving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Encourage or assent to illegally or criminally

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "connive" is one way to...):

accede; acquiesce; assent (to agree or express agreement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

connivance ((law) tacit approval of someone's wrongdoing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

connive; intrigue; scheme

Hypernyms (to "connive" is one way to...):

plot (plan secretly, usually something illegal)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

connivance (agreement on a secret plot)

 Context examples 

Do our laws connive at them?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The maroon had connived at his escape in a shore boat some hours ago, and he now assured us he had only done so to preserve our lives, which would certainly have been forfeit if that man with the one leg had stayed aboard.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This was exactly what Sir Thomas and Edmund had been separately conniving at, as each proved to the other by the sympathetic alacrity with which they both advised Mrs. Norris's continuing where she was, instead of rushing out into the hall as soon as the noises of the arrival reached them.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They look upon fraud as a greater crime than theft, and therefore seldom fail to punish it with death; for they allege, that care and vigilance, with a very common understanding, may preserve a man’s goods from thieves, but honesty has no defence against superior cunning; and, since it is necessary that there should be a perpetual intercourse of buying and selling, and dealing upon credit, where fraud is permitted and connived at, or has no law to punish it, the honest dealer is always undone, and the knave gets the advantage.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

In the gayest and happiest spirits she set forward with her father; not always listening, but always agreeing to what he said; and, whether in speech or silence, conniving at the comfortable persuasion of his being obliged to go to Randalls every day, or poor Mrs. Weston would be disappointed.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Into the details of the infamy at which I thus connived (for even now I can scarce grant that I committed it) I have no design of entering; I mean but to point out the warnings and the successive steps with which my chastisement approached.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)