contrivance - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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contrivance (plural contrivances)
- A (mechanical) device to perform a certain task; contraption.
- A means, such as an elaborate plan or strategy, to accomplish a certain objective.
1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 208:
I mean to give something as slight and inexpensive as possible; but I have been so long out of the way of these things, that I am really quite at a loss, and must throw myself on your kindness, as I hope you will be with me, and also Mr. and Mrs. Gooch. You must arrange in such a manner as not to blush for your own contrivances.
2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 266b:
And along with each of these go their images, not the things themselves, — they too have come about by godlike contrivance.
- Something overly artful or artificial.
(mechanical) device to perform a certain task
elaborate means to accomplish an objective
- Bulgarian: средство (bg) n (sredstvo), способ (bg) m (sposob)
- French: stratagème (fr) m
- German: Vorrichtung (de) f, Erfindung (de) f, Plan (de) m, Kniff (de) m, List (de) f, Kunstgriff (de) m, Planung (de) f, Findigkeit (de) f
- Italian: stratagemma (it) m, artefizio m, espediente (it) m, accorgimento (it) m, sotterfugio (it) m
- Portuguese: artifício (pt) m, artimanha (pt) f
- Russian: зате́я (ru) f (zatéja), план (ru) m (plan), вы́думка (ru) f (výdumka)
- Spanish: artificio (es) m, artimaña (es) f, estratagema (es) f
something overly artful or artificial
- “contrivance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “contrivance”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.