DEVISING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Devising

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/dɪvˈaɪzɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Devise v. t. (past & past part. devised; pres. part. devising)

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; as, to devise an engine, a new mode of writing, a plan of defense, or an argument. "To devise curious works." "Devising schemes to realize his ambitious views."

To plan or scheme for; to purpose to obtain. "For wisdom is most riches; fools therefore They are which fortunes do by vows devise."

To say; to relate; to describe. (Obs.)

To imagine; to guess. (Obs.)

(Law) To give by will; used of real estate; formerly, also, of chattels.

Synonyms: To bequeath; invent; discover; contrive; excogitate; imagine; plan; scheme. See Bequeath.

Devise v. i. To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider. "I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer." Note: Devise was formerly followed by of; as, let us devise of ease.

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Etymology of 'Devising'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Devising" Quotes from Famous Books

... fools' hypotheses, as Darwin did for "fools' experiments." But to complete the scientific character, there must be great patience, accuracy, and impartiality in examining and testing these conjectures, as well as great ingenuity in devising experiments to that end. The want of these qualities leads to crude work and public failure and brings hypotheses into derision. Not partially and hastily to believe in one's own guesses, nor petulantly or timidly to reject them, but to consider the matter, ...

— Logic - Deductive and Inductive • Carveth Read

... of the historian, cannot let so great an element alone. By the cheap revolutionary it is commonly supposed that imagination is a merely rebellious thing, that it has its chief function in devising new and fantastic republics. But imagination has its highest use in a retrospective realization. The trumpet of imagination, like the trumpet of the Resurrection, calls the dead out of their graves. Imagination sees Delphi with the eyes ...

— The Defendant • G.K. Chesterton

... butter-muslin or cheesecloth, and decided that, at a pinch, it would do. The "rich blacksmith's daughter" cast the thought of dotted Swiss behind her, and elected to follow Rebecca in cheesecloth as she had in higher matters; straightway devising costumes that included such drawing of threads, such hemstitching and pin-tucking, such insertions of fine thread tatting that, in order to be finished, Rebecca's dress was given out in sections,—the sash to Hannah, waist and sleeves to Mrs. ...

— Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... had blundered into his own pitiless snares. Naturally, he would have had no suspicion that the traps remained. In his mad haste, he had rushed heedlessly upon destruction. The remorseless engines of his own devising had taken full toll of him. By his own act, he paid with his life the penalty for crime. There was propriety in the ...

— Heart of the Blue Ridge • Waldron Baily

... an obscure source—namely, that Paine "sold himself to the highest bidder." Let us examine the last charge first. The critic curiously contradicts himself. Paine, he admits, could "sometimes write as pointedly as Junius or Cobbett," whose works sold enormously, and he had the art of devising happy titles for his productions; yet, although he sold himself to the highest bidder, he could be bought at a very low price! The fact is, Paine was never bought at all. His was not a hireling pen. Whatever he wrote he put his name to, and he never parted with the ...

— Arrows of Freethought • George W. Foote

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