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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Contrivance \Con*triv"ance\, noun
1. The act or faculty of contriving, inventing, devising, or planning.
The machine which we are inspecting demonstrates, by its construction, contrivance and design. Contrivance must have had a contriver. --Paley.
2. The thing contrived, invented, or planned; disposition of parts or causes by design; a scheme; plan; artifice; arrangement.
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}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
contrivance
noun
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}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |