CONTRIVANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does contrivance mean? 

• CONTRIVANCE (noun)
  The noun CONTRIVANCE has 6 senses:

1. a device or control that is very useful for a particular job

2. the faculty of contriving; inventive skill

3. an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade

4. an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.

5. any improvised arrangement for temporary use

6. the act of devising something

  Familiarity information: CONTRIVANCE used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTRIVANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A device or control that is very useful for a particular job

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

appliance; contraption; contrivance; convenience; gadget; gismo; gizmo; widget

Hypernyms ("contrivance" is a kind of...):

device (an instrumentality invented for a particular purpose)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contrivance"):

gadgetry (appliances collectively)

gimbal (an appliance that allows an object (such as a ship's compass) to remain horizontal even as its support tips)

injector (a contrivance for injecting (e.g., water into the boiler of a steam engine or particles into an accelerator etc.))

mod con (modern convenience; the appliances and conveniences characteristic of a modern house)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The faculty of contriving; inventive skill

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

his skillful contrivance of answers to every problem

Hypernyms ("contrivance" is a kind of...):

conception; design; excogitation; innovation; invention (the creation of something in the mind)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

contrivance; dodge; stratagem

Context example:

his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track

Hypernyms ("contrivance" is a kind of...):

scheme; strategy (an elaborate and systematic plan of action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contrivance"):

plant (something planted secretly for discovery by another)

pump-and-dump scheme (an illegal scheme for making money by manipulating stock prices; the schemer persuades other people to buy the stock and then sells it himself as soon as the price of the stock rises)

wangle; wangling (an instance of accomplishing something by scheming or trickery)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

the plot contained too many improbable contrivances to be believable

Hypernyms ("contrivance" is a kind of...):

arrangement; organisation; organization; system (an organized structure for arranging or classifying)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Any improvised arrangement for temporary use

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

contrivance; lash-up

Hypernyms ("contrivance" is a kind of...):

arrangement (an orderly grouping (of things or persons) considered as a unit; the result of arranging)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contrivance"):

patch; temporary hookup (a connection intended to be used for a limited time)

Sense 6

Meaning:

The act of devising something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

contrivance; devisal

Hypernyms ("contrivance" is a kind of...):

invention (the act of inventing)

Derivation:

contrive (come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort)

 Context examples 

Maud stood silently by my side, while I evolved in my mind the contrivance known among sailors as “shears.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Till the next morning, however, she was not aware of all the felicity of her contrivance.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The contrivances of modern days indeed have rendered a gentleman's carriage perfectly complete.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Martin had learned the contrivance from Joe at the Shelly Hot Springs.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“It is not of this world. Something has come into that room which has dashed the light of reason from their minds. What human contrivance could do that?”

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When parties in a state are violent, he offered a wonderful contrivance to reconcile them.

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

Anne had a moment's astonishment on the subject herself; but it was soon lost in the pleasanter feelings which sprang from the sight of all the ingenious contrivances and nice arrangements of Captain Harville, to turn the actual space to the best account, to supply the deficiencies of lodging-house furniture, and defend the windows and doors against the winter storms to be expected.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Norris was most zealous in promoting the match, by every suggestion and contrivance likely to enhance its desirableness to either party; and, among other means, by seeking an intimacy with the gentleman's mother, who at present lived with him, and to whom she even forced Lady Bertram to go through ten miles of indifferent road to pay a morning visit.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

That the hair was her own, she instantaneously felt as well satisfied as Marianne; the only difference in their conclusions was, that what Marianne considered as a free gift from her sister, Elinor was conscious must have been procured by some theft or contrivance unknown to herself.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

An instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent, or other similar or related article, including any component, part, or accessory, which is recognized in the official National Formulary, or the United States Pharmacopeia, or any supplement to them, intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals, or intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes.

(Medical device, Food and Drug Administration/CDISC)