CONTRIVANCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Contrivance

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/kəntrˈaɪvəns/ Listen

noun

Contrivance n.

The act or faculty of contriving, inventing, devising, or planning. "The machine which we are inspecting demonstrates, by its construction, contrivance and design. Contrivance must have had a contriver."

The thing contrived, invented, or planned; disposition of parts or causes by design; a scheme; plan; artifice; arrangement. "Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants."

Synonyms: Device; plan; scheme; invention; machine; project; design; artifice; shift. See Device.

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Etymology of 'Contrivance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contrivance" Quotes from Famous Books

... trespass a little more upon you, in describing the contrivance of blowing the Fire in the Brassworks of Tivoli neer Rome (it being new to me) where the Water blows the Fire, not by moving the Bellows, (which is common) but by affording the Wind. See Fig. II. Where A. is the {26} River, B. the Fall of it, C. the Tub ...

— Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 • Various

... to want was this water with fruit, or such native vegetables as there were. Bickley disapproved and made me eat fish occasionally, but even this revolted me, and since I gained steadily in weight, as we found out by a simple contrivance, and remained healthy in every other way, soon he allowed me to choose ...

— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard

... strong tendency of the Rev. Didymus Bean, the Minister at that time, towards the Arminian Heresy may have had something to do with it, and that the Serpent supposed to have been killed on the Pulpit-Stairs was a false show of the Daemon's Contrivance, he having come in to listen to a Discourse which was a sweet Savour in his Nostrils, and, of course, not being capable of being killed Himself. Others said, however, that, though there was good Reason to think it was a Daemon, yet he did come with Intent ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860 • Various

... been made that it is not too much to say that perhaps some day we may be able to establish some sort of communication with Mars, and if it be inhabited by any intelligent beings, we may be able to signal to them; but it is almost impossible that any contrivance could bridge the gulf of airless space that separates us, and it is not likely that holiday trips to Mars ...

— The Children's Book of Stars • G.E. Mitton

... Gloomy forebodings crept upon him. He beheld in this strange visitation another and a manifest interposition of Heaven, fighting against the cause he had unhappily espoused. Rest was out of the question, his whole thoughts being occupied in the contrivance of measures ...

— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby

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