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  1. contrive love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To plan with cleverness or ingenuity; devise: contrive ways to amuse the children.
  2. v. To invent or fabricate, especially by improvisation: contrived a swing from hanging vines.
  3. v. To plan with evil intent; scheme: contrived a plot to seize power.
  4. v. To bring about, as by scheming; manage: somehow contrived to get past the guards unnoticed.
  5. v. To form plans or schemes.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To invent; devise; plan.
  2. To manage, by a device, stratagem, plan, or scheme: with an infinitive as object: as, he contrived to gain his point.
  3. Synonyms To design, project, plot, concoct, hatch, form, frame, brew.
  4. To form schemes or designs; plan; scheme.
  5. To wear away; spend.
  6. To make out; discover; imagine: as, what had become of him I could not contrive.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to plan; to scheme; to plot.
  2. v. To invent, to make devices; to form designs especially by improvisation.
  3. v. To project, cast, or set forth, as in a projection of light.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to invent; to design; to plan.
  2. v. To make devices; to form designs; to plan; to scheme; to plot.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. put or send forth
  2. v. make or work out a plan for; devise.
  3. v. come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort

Etymologies

  1. Middle English contreve ("to invent"), Old French controver (French controuver), from trover ("to find") (French trouver). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English contreven, from Old French controver, contreuv-, from Medieval Latin contropāre, to compare : Latin com-, com- + Latin tropus, turn, manner, style (from Greek tropos; see trep- in Indo-European roots). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (12)

Words with the same meaning

  1. concert
  2. project
  1. plan
  2. invent
  1. discover
  2. hatch
  1. design
  2. plot
  1. scheme
  2. shift
  1. plant
  2. conspire

hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. create by mental act
  1. create mentally

rhymes (23)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Clive
  2. Dr
  3. Dr.
  4. alive
  1. arrive
  2. clyve
  3. connive
  4. deprive
  1. derive
  2. dive
  3. dr
  4. dr.
  1. drive
  2. five
  3. hive
  4. jive
  1. live
  2. revive
  3. shive
  4. strive
  1. survive
  2. thrive
  3. vive

reverse dictionary (72)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. concert
  2. plot
  3. machinate
  4. contreve
  5. controve
  6. excogitate
  7. intrigue
  8. invent
  9. ingeniate
  10. work
  11. ingenious
  12. manage
  13. devise
  14. imagine
  1. consult
  2. hatch
  3. lay
  4. forelay
  5. pack
  6. precogitate
  7. precontrive
  8. premeditate
  9. scheme
  10. contrive
  11. fudge
  12. complot
  13. contriven
  14. financier
  1. forethink
  2. concoct
  3. agitate
  4. brew
  5. carve
  6. cast
  7. to clap up
  8. figure
  9. forecast
  10. frame
  11. design
  12. fashion
  13. fake
  14. weave
  1. trive
  2. plan
  3. to play one's cards
  4. procure
  5. project
  6. shift
  7. to make shift
  8. to go to work
  9. bear
  10. compass
  11. conspire
  12. cut
  13. do
  14. engine
  1. fabricate
  2. hammer
  3. improvise
  4. machine
  5. practise
  6. prepense
  7. set
  8. shape
  9. spring
  10. steer
  11. strike
  12. study
  13. subtile
  14. sympathize
  1. wait
  2. wind

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  • gustekd to contrive to do sth, a system, a war, a protest,an explanation,
    How nature always does contrive! Jan 14, 2011

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‘contrive’ has been looked up 3390 times, loved by 10 people, added to 49 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 13.