CONTRIVE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does contrive mean? 

• CONTRIVE (verb)
  The verb CONTRIVE has 3 senses:

1. make or work out a plan for; devise

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

3. put or send forth

  Familiarity information: CONTRIVE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTRIVE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they contrive    ... he / she / it contrives   
Past simple: contrived   
Past participle: contrived   
-ing form: contriving   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make or work out a plan for; devise

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

contrive; design; plan; project

Context example:

plan an attack

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

create by mental act; create mentally (create mentally and abstractly rather than with one's hands)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contrive"):

plot (devise the sequence of events in (a literary work or a play, movie, or ballet))

concert (contrive (a plan) by mutual agreement)

map; map out (plan, delineate, or arrange in detail)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

They contrive to move

Derivation:

contriver (a person who makes plans)

Sense 2

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

contrive; devise; excogitate; forge; formulate; invent

Context example:

excogitate a way to measure the speed of light

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

create by mental act; create mentally (create mentally and abstractly rather than with one's hands)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Did he contrive his major works over a short period of time?

Derivation:

contrivance (the act of devising something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Put or send forth

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

cast; contrive; project; throw

Context example:

cast a warm light

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

direct; send (cause to go somewhere)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "contrive"):

shoot (send forth suddenly, intensely, swiftly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

But while he eyed the approaching hand, he at the same time contrived to keep track of the club in the other hand, suspended threateningly above him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

How I found time to haunt Putney, I am sure I don't know; but I contrived, by some means or other, to prowl about the neighbourhood pretty often.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Messner regarded her in a way that was almost paternal, what of the profundity of pity and patience with which he contrived to suffuse it.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But I was so much displeased, that I entreated Glumdalclitch to contrive some excuse for not seeing that young lady any more.

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

Ere long, with the servant's aid, I contrived to mount a staircase; my dripping clothes were removed; soon a warm, dry bed received me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It had not been necessary, and the few occasions of its being possible for her to go to the Hall she had contrived to evade and escape from.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It might have been as well, perhaps, if you had been in my place, but you always contrive to keep out of these scrapes.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

To devise, contrive, or form in design.

(Plan, NCI Thesaurus)

She procured plain work; she plaited straw and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The squire raised his gun, the rowing ceased, and we leaned over to the other side to keep the balance, and all was so nicely contrived that we did not ship a drop.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)