Contrivance \Con*triv"ance\, n.
1. The act or faculty of contriving, inventing, devising, or
planning.
[1913 Webster]
The machine which we are inspecting demonstrates, by
its construction, contrivance and design.
Contrivance must have had a contriver. --Paley.
[1913 Webster]
2. The thing contrived, invented, or planned; disposition of
parts or causes by design; a scheme; plan; artifice;
arrangement.
[1913 Webster]
Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to
provide for human wants. --Burke.
Syn: Device; plan; scheme; invention; machine; project;
design; artifice; shift. See Device.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
contrivance
n 1: a device that is very useful for a particular job [syn: appliance,
contraption, convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo,
widget]
2: the faculty of contriving; inventive skill; "his skillful
contrivance of answers to every problem"
3: an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or
evade; "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us
off the track" [syn: stratagem, dodge]
4: an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived
arrangement of details or parts etc.; "the plot contained
too many improbable contrivances to be believable"
5: any improvised arrangement for temporary use [syn: lash-up]
6: the act of devising something [syn: devisal]
WordNet (r) 2.0
244 Moby Thesaurus words for "contrivance":
Charlie McCarthy, action, ad hoc measure, agent, anagnorisis,
ancilla, angle, answer, apparatus, appliance, approach,
architectonics, architecture, argument, arrangement, art,
artful dodge, artifice, atmosphere, attack, authorship, background,
beginning, blind, blueprint, blueprinting, brainchild, cabal,
calculation, catastrophe, characterization, charting, chicanery,
coinage, collusion, color, complication, complicity, complot,
conception, concoction, confederacy, connivance, conspiracy,
continuity, contraption, contriving, countermove, counterplot,
coup, course of action, covin, craft, creation, creative effort,
creature, cute trick, deceit, deep-laid plot, demarche, denouement,
design, development, device, devising, disposition, dodge, dummy,
dupe, effort, engineering, enterprise, envisagement, episode,
expedient, fable, fabrication, fakement, falling action, feint,
fetch, figuring, finagling, finesse, foresight, forethought,
frame-up, gadget, gambit, game, generation, gimcrack, gimmick,
gizmo, go-between, graphing, grift, ground plan, guidelines,
hand tool, handmaid, handmaiden, hatching, idea, implement,
improvisation, incident, instrument, intention, interagent,
intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, intrigue, invention,
jugglery, jury-rig, jury-rigged expedient, knavery, last expedient,
last resort, last shift, layout, lever, line, lineup, little game,
local color, long-range plan, machination, makeshift, making do,
maneuver, maneuvering, manipulation, mapping, master plan, means,
measure, mechanical device, mechanism, mediator, medium, method,
methodology, midwife, minion, mintage, mood, motif, move, movement,
mythos, operations research, organ, organization, origination,
pawn, peripeteia, pis aller, plan, planning, planning function,
plaything, plot, plotting, ploy, power tool, prearrangement,
precision tool, procedure, program, program of action, puppet,
racket, rationalization, recognition, red herring, resort,
resource, rigging, rising action, ruse, schedule, schema,
schematism, schematization, scheme, scheme of arrangement,
schemery, scheming, secondary plot, servant, setup, shake-up,
shift, slant, slave, sleight, solution, speed tool, step, stooge,
stopgap, story, stratagem, strategic plan, strategy, stroke,
stroke of policy, structure, subject, subplot, subterfuge, switch,
system, systematization, tactic, tactical plan, tactics,
temporary expedient, the big picture, the picture,
thematic development, theme, tone, tool, topic, toy, trick,
trickery, trump, twist, underplot, utensil, vehicle, way,
web of intrigue, wile, wily device, wire-pulling,
working hypothesis, working plan, working proposition
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
appliance, contraption, convenience, devisal, dodge, gadget, gismo, gizmo, lash-up, stratagem, widget
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