DEVICE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Device

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/dɪvˈaɪs/ Listen

noun

Device n.

1.

That which is devised, or formed by design; a contrivance; an invention; a project; a scheme; often, a scheme to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. "His device in against Babylon, to destroy it." "Their recent device of demanding benevolences." "He disappointeth the devices of the crafty."

2.

Power of devising; invention; contrivance. "I must have instruments of my own device."

3.

(a)

An emblematic design, generally consisting of one or more figures with a motto, used apart from heraldic bearings to denote the historical situation, the ambition, or the desire of the person adopting it. See Cognizance.

(b)

Improperly, an heraldic bearing. "Knights-errant used to distinguish themselves by devices on their shields." "A banner with this strange device - Excelsior."

4.

Anything fancifully conceived.

5.

A spectacle or show. (Obs.)

6.

Opinion; decision. (Obs.)

7.

Any artifactual object designed to perform an action or process, with or without an operator in attendance.

Synonyms: Contrivance; invention; design; scheme; project; stratagem; shift. Device, Contrivance. Device implies more of inventive power, and contrivance more of skill and dexterity in execution. A device usually has reference to something worked out for exhibition or show; a contrivance usually respects the arrangement or disposition of things with reference to securing some end. Devices were worn by knights-errant on their shields; contrivances are generally used to promote the practical convenience of life. The word device is often used in a bad sense; as, a crafty device; contrivance is almost always used in a good sense; as, a useful contrivance.

See images of 'Device'

Etymology of 'Device'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Device" Quotes from Famous Books

... the creature sufficiently. I will not repeat the language of the guard and coachman on discovering the trick played; but after direful threats as to what the showman might 'expect' as the result of his device, matters were amicably arranged. The owner of the bear made most abject apologies all round (I fancy giving more than civil words to the coach officials), I interceded for him, and the mail set off at double speed to make up for lost time. ...

— Fifty-Two Stories For Girls • Various

... Her conviction was that she who, as a woman many years his senior, should have shown her love for him by guiding him straight into the paths he aimed at, had blocked his attempted career for her own happiness. This made her more intent than ever to find out a device by which, while she still retained him, he might also retain the ...

— Two on a Tower • Thomas Hardy

... the floors radiated the majority of the heat, and the walls a slightly less amount. The fresh air under the ancient system must have entered through the cooler rooms, and being drawn towards the calidarium found its exit through the ceilings, at times by way of the regulating device mentioned by Vitruvius. Thus the ancient bather would not suffer the inconvenience that accrues to the bather in the modern hot-air bath, whose head, when he is standing upright, is in a considerably higher temperature than any ...

— The Turkish Bath - Its Design and Construction • Robert Owen Allsop

... democracy in America is that, left to themselves, the settlers came to feel that self-government was morally right. Largely removed from the traditions of monarchy, they soon realized the elemental significance of government. Seeing government as a device to help people get along together, they concluded that that government is best which most helps the masses of the people. The existence of a British monarch was a small factor in the everyday life of the early settlers, and from this it was a short step to asserting that his control ...

— Problems in American Democracy • Thames Ross Williamson

... abolishing the purchase of commissions) in 1871, Gladstone overpowered their opposition by advising the Crown to cancel the Royal Warrant which made purchase legal, and to issue a new warrant ending the sale of commissions. This device completely worsted the House of Lords, for a refusal to pass the Bill under the circumstances merely deprived the holders of commissions of the compensation awarded in the Bill. The Army Reform Bill became ...

— The Rise of the Democracy • Joseph Clayton

Copyright © 2025 e-Free Translation.com