INVENT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Invent

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/ɪnvˈɛnt/ Listen

verb

Invent v. t. (past & past part. invented; pres. part. inventing)

To come or light upon; to meet; to find. (Obs.) "And vowed never to return again, Till him alive or dead she did invent."

To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine. "Thus first Necessity invented stools."

To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; in a good or a bad sense; as, to invent the machinery of a poem; to invent a falsehood. "Whate'er his cruel malice could invent." "He had invented some circumstances, and put the worst possible construction on others."

Synonyms: To discover; contrive; devise; frame; design; fabricate; concoct; elaborate. See Discover.

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Etymology of 'Invent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Invent" Quotes from Famous Books

... this objection, And prove myself; by topic clear No gelding, as you would infer. Loss of virility's averr'd To be the cause of loss of beard, 710 That does (like embryo in the womb) Abortive on the chin become. This first a woman did invent, In envy of man's ornament; SEMIRAMIS, of Babylon, 715 Who first of all cut men o' th' stone, To mar their beards, and lay foundation Of sow-geldering operation. Look on this beard, and tell me whether Eunuchs wear such, or geldings ...

— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... of this paper; that it contains nothing new; that it only states grounds of proceeding, and presses topics of argument, which had often been stated and pressed before. But it was not the object of the Declaration to produce anything new. It was not to invent reasons for independence, but to state those which governed the congress. For great and sufficient causes it was proposed to declare independence; and the proper business of the paper to be drawn was to set forth those causes, and justify the authors of the measure, in ...

— Thomas Jefferson • Edward S. Ellis et. al.

... having expended so many fine phrases upon himself, was obliged to invent a new one for the French, and he calls them "wonderful people!" The coalesced ...

— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... the sacrilegious miscreants! the hideous monsters! the villainous reptiles! Aye! punishment will overtake them; they shall rue this day! All Rome shall rue this day: her streets shall flow with blood and I'll invent such tortures for every man as will turn the firmament red with ...

— "Unto Caesar" • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... ageing fast. My mind does not dwell on slaughter as it did when I was a boy. Why doesn't your husband invent something? He does nothing but tell ...

— Heartbreak House • George Bernard Shaw

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