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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Invent \In*vent"\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Invented}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Inventing}.] [L. inventus, p. p. of invenire to come upon, to find, invent; pref. in- in + venire to come, akin to E. come: cf. F. inventer. See {Come}.]
1. To come or light upon; to meet; to find. [Obs.]
And vowed never to return again, Till him alive or dead she did invent. --Spenser.
2. To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; -- applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine.
Thus first Necessity invented stools. --Cowper.
3. To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; -- in a good or a bad sense; as, to invent the machinery of a poem; to invent a falsehood.
Whate'er his cruel malice could invent. --Milton.
He had invented some circumstances, and put the worst possible construction on others. --Sir W. Scott.
Syn: To discover; contrive; devise; frame; design; fabricate; concoct; elaborate. See {Discover}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
invent
verb
1: come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or priciple) after a mental effort; "excogitate a way to measure the speed of light" [syn: {contrive}, {devise}, {excogitate}, {formulate}, {forge}]
2: make up something artificial or untrue [syn: {fabricate}, {manufacture}, {cook up}, {make up}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
99 Moby Thesaurus words for "invent": beget, break ground, break the ice, breed, bring forth, bring into being, call into being, coin, conceit, conceive, conceptualize, concoct, contrive, cook up, counterfeit, create, design, determine, develop, devise, discover, dream up, engender, envision, evolve, experience imaginatively, fabricate, fake, fancy, fantasize, fictionalize, find, find out, forge, formulate, frame, fudge, generate, get, give being to, give rise to, hatch, hatch up, head, head up, hit, hit upon, hoke up, hunt down, ideate, imagine, improvise, inaugurate, initiate, innovate, introduce, introduce new blood, lead, lead off, lead the way, locate, make do with, make innovations, make up, manufacture, mature, mint, mold, neologize, neoterize, originate, pioneer, plan, precede, procreate, produce, rediscover, renew, renovate, revolutionize, run down, run to earth, shape, spawn, stand first, strike, strike out, suppose, take the initiative, take the lead, take the plunge, think out, think up, trace, trace down, track down, trump up, turn out, vamp up
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