contriver


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Related to contriver: recoverer, captors, finalised, succeeders

con·trive

 (kən-trīv′)
v. con·trived, con·triv·ing, con·trives
v.tr.
1. To plan with cleverness or ingenuity; devise: contrive ways to amuse the children.
2. To invent or fabricate, especially by improvisation: contrived a swing from hanging vines.
3. To plan with evil intent; scheme: contrived a plot to seize power.
4. To bring about, as by scheming; manage: somehow contrived to get past the guards unnoticed.
v.intr.
To form plans or schemes.

[Middle English contreven, from Old French controver, contreuv-, from Medieval Latin contropāre, to compare : Latin com-, com- + Latin tropus, turn, manner, style (from Greek tropos; see trep- in Indo-European roots).]

con·triv′er n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.contriver - a person who makes planscontriver - a person who makes plans    
individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"
intriguer, designer - a person who devises plots or intrigues; "he is believed to be the principal designer of the terrorist bombing attack"
maneuverer, manoeuvrer - a person skilled in maneuvering
plotter, schemer - a planner who draws up a personal scheme of action
strategian, strategist - an expert in strategy (especially in warfare)
tactician - a person who is skilled at planning tactics
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in classic literature ?
Can you, with honour, be the knowing, the wilful occasion, nay, the artful contriver of the ruin of a human being?
"He was amazed, how so impotent and grovelling an insect as I" (these were his expressions) "could entertain such inhuman ideas, and in so familiar a manner, as to appear wholly unmoved at all the scenes of blood and desolation which I had painted as the common effects of those destructive machines; whereof," he said, "some evil genius, enemy to mankind, must have been the first contriver. As for himself, he protested, that although few things delighted him so much as new discoveries in art or in nature, yet he would rather lose half his kingdom, than be privy to such a secret; which he commanded me, as I valued any life, never to mention any more."
She prided herself also upon being an excellent contriver in housekeeping; though I could never find that we grew richer with her contrivances."
That swindling Pumblechook, exalted into the beneficent contriver of the whole occasion, actually took the top of the table; and, when he addressed them on the subject of my being bound, and had fiendishly congratulated them on my being liable to imprisonment if I played at cards, drank strong liquors, kept late hours or bad company, or indulged in other vagaries which the form of my indentures appeared to contemplate as next to inevitable, he placed me standing on a chair beside him, to illustrate his remarks.
A heroine returning, at the close of her career, to her native village, in all the triumph of recovered reputation, and all the dignity of a countess, with a long train of noble relations in their several phaetons, and three waiting-maids in a travelling chaise and four, behind her, is an event on which the pen of the contriver may well delight to dwell; it gives credit to every conclusion, and the author must share in the glory she so liberally bestows.
There are no worse instruments, than these general contrivers of suits; for they are but a kind of poison, and infection, to public proceedings.
Such was the din of the bells and the squalling of the cats, that though the duke and duchess were the contrivers of the joke they were startled by it, while Don Quixote stood paralysed with fear; and as luck would have it, two or three of the cats made their way in through the grating of his chamber, and flying from one side to the other, made it seem as if there was a legion of devils at large in it.
Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake, inimitable contriver, endower of Earth so gorgeous & different from the boring Moon, thank you for such as it is my gift.
From contriver and analysts to designer and developers there area plenty of roles that a digital agency will set up within the majority of your established Brand name.
Second, from the onset, China's protest over THAAD has been directed towards the United States rather than South Korea since Washington is regarded as the contriver of the strategy aptly referred to as the 'Pivot to East Asia' along with the deployment of THAAD.
But 'when the mind is forced with a melancholy humour', Agrippa emphasises, 'any most ignorant man doth presently become an excellent painter, or contriver of buildings'.