'Contrivance' definitions:
Definition of 'contrivance'
From: WordNet
noun
A device or control that is very useful for a particular job [syn: appliance, contraption, contrivance, convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo, widget]
noun
The faculty of contriving; inventive skill; "his skillful contrivance of answers to every problem"
noun
An elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade; "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track" [syn: contrivance, stratagem, dodge]
noun
An artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.; "the plot contained too many improbable contrivances to be believable"
noun
Any improvised arrangement for temporary use [syn: lash-up, contrivance]
noun
The act of devising something [syn: devisal, contrivance]
Definition of 'Contrivance'
From: GCIDE
- 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]
Synonyms of 'contrivance'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- 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,
- Charlie McCarthy,
- 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