Search Result for "contrived":
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (2)

1. showing effects of planning or manipulation;
- Example: "a novel with a contrived ending"

2. artificially formal;
- Example: "that artificial humility that her husband hated"
- Example: "contrived coyness"
- Example: "a stilted letter of acknowledgment"
- Example: "when people try to correct their speech they develop a stilted pronunciation"
[syn: artificial, contrived, hokey, stilted]



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Contrive \Con*trive"\ (k[o^]n*tr[imac]v"), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
   Contrived; p. pr. & vb. n. Contriving.] [OE. contriven,
   contreven, controven, to invent, OF. controver, contruver;
   con- + trouver to find. See Troubadour, trover.]
   To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to invent; to
   design; to plan.
   [1913 Webster]

         What more likely to contrive this admirable frame of
         the universe than infinite wisdom.       --Tillotson.
   [1913 Webster]

         neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught
         against his life.                        --Hawthorne.

   Syn: To invent; discover; plan; design; project; plot;
        concert; hatch.
        [1913 Webster]