devise

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To form, plan, or arrange in the mind; design or contrive: devised a new system for handling mail orders.
2. v. Law To transmit or give (real property) by will.
3. v. Archaic To suppose; imagine.
4. n. The act of transmitting or giving real property by will.
5. n. The property or lands so transmitted or given.
6. n. Law A will or clause in a will transmitting or giving real property.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To divide; distinguish.
2. To say; tell; relate; describe.
3. To imagine; conjecture; guess, or guess at.
4. To think or study out; elaborate in the mind; invent; contrive; plan: as, to devise a new machine, or a new method of doing anything; to devise a plan of defense; to devise schemes of plunder.
5. To plan or scheme for; purpose to obtain.
6. To give, assign, make over, or transmit (real property) by will.
7. Synonyms To concoct, concert.
8. To consider; lay a plan or plans; form a scheme or schemes; contrive.
9. n. (dē˙-vīs′ ). An obsolete spelling of device.
10. n. In law: The act of bequeathing by will.
11. n. A will or testament.
12. n. A gift of real property by will: sometimes loosely used of personal property.
13. n. The clause in a will by which such gift is made.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To use one's intellect to plan or design (something).
2. v. transitive To leave (property) in a will.
3. n. the act of leaving real property in a will
4. n. such a will, or a clause in such a will
5. n. the real property left in such a will

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To form in the mind by new combinations of ideas, new applications of principles, or new arrangement of parts; to formulate by thought; to contrive; to excogitate; to invent; to plan; to scheme.
2. v. To plan or scheme for; to purpose to obtain.
3. v. obsolete To say; to relate; to describe.
4. v. obsolete To imagine; to guess.
5. v. (Law) To give by will; -- used of real estate; formerly, also, of chattels.
6. v. To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.
7. n. The act of giving or disposing of real estate by will; -- sometimes improperly applied to a bequest of personal estate.
8. n. A will or testament, conveying real estate; the clause of a will making a gift of real property.
9. n. Property devised, or given by will.
10. n. obsolete Device. See device.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (law) a gift of real property by will
2. v. arrange by systematic planning and united effort
3. n. a will disposing of real property
4. v. give by will, especially real property
5. v. come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort