Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To cooperate secretly in an illegal or wrongful action; collude.
- intransitive verb To scheme; plot.
- intransitive verb To feign ignorance of or fail to take measures against a wrong, thus implying tacit encouragement or consent.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To wink.
- Hence To wink, or refrain from looking, in a figurative sense, as at a culpable person or act; give aid or encouragement by silence or forbearance; conceal knowledge of a fault or wrong: followed by at (formerly sometimes with on).
- To be in secret complicity; have a furtive or clandestine understanding: followed by with: as, to
connive with one in a wrongful act. - To waive objection; act as if satisfied; acquiesce: used absolutely.
- To tamper: followed by with.
- To shut one's eyes to; wink at; tacitly permit.
- In biology, to be connivent.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb R. & Obs. To shut the eyes to; to overlook; to pretend not to see.
- intransitive verb obsolete To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink.
- intransitive verb To close the eyes upon a fault; to wink (at); to fail or forbear by intention to discover an act; to permit a proceeding, as if not aware of it; -- usually followed by
at .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb to
cooperate with otherssecretly in order to commit acrime ; tocollude - verb to
plot orscheme - verb to
pretend to beignorant of something in order to escapeblame - verb to be a
wench
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb encourage or assent to illegally or criminally
- verb form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Not sure what you mean by 'connive' as we have not been in government when these decisions were taken.
Rats jumping ship 2007
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She will connive and she will lie and she will wheedle her way in as far as she can wheedle, further than you can imagine, until — — oh, I don't know — — she has the password to your SL account.
"We think we've climbed so high, Up all the backs we've condemned..." greygirlbeast 2009
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As David Gardner, veteran Middle East correspondent for that communist rag the Financial Times: "If we continue to connive in the survival of tyranny, we abet the onward march of the jihadis for whom Western policy is their most consistently reliable ally."
Johann Hari: We All Helped Suppress the Egyptians -- With Our Taxes. So How Do We Change? Johann Hari 2011
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Two of his daughters connive and flatter him, while his youngest, Cordelia, refuses to put her affection to such a test.
Al Pacino Takes the Throne as ‘King Lear’ » MTV Movies Blog 2009
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As David Gardner, veteran Middle East correspondent for that communist rag the Financial Times: "If we continue to connive in the survival of tyranny, we abet the onward march of the jihadis for whom Western policy is their most consistently reliable ally."
Johann Hari: We All Helped Suppress the Egyptians -- With Our Taxes. So How Do We Change? Johann Hari 2011
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If we connive, it makes no difference whether the torture has been outsourced or perpetrated close to home in Birmingham.
The Birmingham Six: Have we learned from our disgraceful past? 2011
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I should have realized Belinda is too simple to deceive and connive.
Olivia V.C.Andrews 2011
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As David Gardner, veteran Middle East correspondent for that communist rag the Financial Times: "If we continue to connive in the survival of tyranny, we abet the onward march of the jihadis for whom Western policy is their most consistently reliable ally."
Johann Hari: We All Helped Suppress the Egyptians -- With Our Taxes. So How Do We Change? Johann Hari 2011
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Negligent parents leave their children with uncouth friends, relatives or even strangers, who in turn connive with witches to kill the children for money.
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As David Gardner, veteran Middle East correspondent for that communist rag the Financial Times: "If we continue to connive in the survival of tyranny, we abet the onward march of the jihadis for whom Western policy is their most consistently reliable ally."
Johann Hari: We All Helped Suppress the Egyptians -- With Our Taxes. So How Do We Change? Johann Hari 2011
fbharjo commented on the word connive
from latin: conniveo, -nixi to wink at: a twinkle with the eye
March 16, 2009