How To Use Contrive In A Sentence

The sense of camaraderie was strong and uncontrived. Times, Sunday Times
But as if divining his thoughts -- just as they passed through the dining-room door, Euphra looked round at him, almost over Funkelstein's shoulder, and, without putting into her face the least expression discernible by either of the others following, contrived to banish for the time all Hugh's despair, and to convince him that he had nothing to fear from Funkelstein. David Elginbrod
She is an uncontrived champion of the Scots language.
A poor script with bad dialogue and a cheesy, contrived family crisis doesn't help her much.
Stokton, a fishmonger, Thomas Yong, a saddler, and Robert Jakes, a shearman — all of whom had more than once been convicted of perjury, and on that account been struck off inquests — had contrived to get themselves replaced on the panel, and had been the chief movers in the recent actions against the late mayor and other officers of the city. London and the Kingdom - Volume I

How could it be that in a situation as artificially contrived as a television studio, you could get this frank and free discussion between two people?
Having a definitive result would lessen the chances of teams being able to contrive an outcome but it would not remove the possibility completely. Times, Sunday Times
Do not the young men contrive great wealth what of their pack-straps and paddles? CHAPTER 2
It is no more than a cleverly crafted lump of inorganic matter; its shape and working parts are contrived to facilitate the intended function: the switching around of the circuitry in clearly defined ways.
They're never overly clever with anything that they do, chord progressions and bass lines are hardly contrived.
And don't get me started on the frowzy little strips of bunting that many business houses feel so fully demonstrates good corporate citizenship, or the contrived costuming of employees in the same pursuit.
What ever man contrives or devises is an artifice, a thing of art not of nature, and therefore artificial. The Kempton-Wace Letters
One can also take issue with the contrived nature of the chase scenes, which were of no dramatic value but rather served to showcase the cinematography and visually exploit the cityscapes of Rome.
Their sudden outburst was obviously genuine; it couldn't have been contrived.
During my brilliant and audacious performances, my family constantly remarked that they thought I sang like Shirley Temple, only way better and a lot more adorably, and that my dancing made hers look contrived and boring. Roseanne Archy
The electricians had contrived a catchment pool and a wheel in the torrent close at hand -- for the little Mulhausen dynamo with its turbinal volute used by the telegraphists was quite adaptable to water driving, and on the sixth day in the evening the apparatus was in working order and the Prince was calling -- weakly, indeed, but calling -- to his air-fleet across the empty spaces of the world. The War in the Air
Couldn't you contrive a meeting between them? I think they'd be ideally suited.
I expect that the gate will be secured and that I will have to contrive some way to get through it, but when I press my hand tentatively against one side of the iron scrollwork, hinges creak. Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
Those wildlife docs are the product of hundreds of hours of footage cut and pasted into a contrived narrative by creative editors. Times, Sunday Times
England -- are mostly extremely handsome, and generally contrive, however big, to retain, at any rate in their heart, as at Antwerp, or in the Grande Place at Brussels, a striking air of antiquity; whilst some fairly big towns, such as Malines and Bruges, are mediaeval from end to end. Beautiful Europe: Belgium
Of course, rituals can be contrived both to reduce contingency [so-called confirmatory rites] and to create it [rites of resistance]; the connections here are multiple and complex. Against Exceptionalism: A New Approach to Games
It seemed very contrived to go after the kidult audience.
The music consisted of a band of guitars, from which the performers, common men, and probably self-taught, contrived to draw wonderfully good music, and, in the intervals of dancing, played airs from the Straniera and Puritani. Life in Mexico, During a Residence of Two Years in That Country
Her golden-brown shining hair waved back from a side parting with that carefully contrived artlessness which is the crowning achievement of a coiffeur, and in colour it exactly matched her soft frock, which was of the sports variety with a finely pleated skirt. Juggernaut
It was as if the claimant's complaint had been without any merit at all, as if it had been contrived.
But the current onslaught of polls brought about by the media since, for example, Health Care reform has been discussed is mazingly contrived. CNN Poll: Dems becoming less popular but no gains for GOP
The striver contrives to derive that privacy can't be deprived.
The striver contrives to derive that privacy can't be deprived.
That other machine may, in like manner, have proceeded from a former machine: nor does that alter the case; the contrivance must have had a contriver.
The plot is contrived in a lot of places and uses some lazy devices in others.
It just seemed like too much of a switch, too contrived and artificial. Times, Sunday Times
Their cheerful group did contrive to make my war seem rather pointless. Whicker's War
Should the fly alight at too great a distance for even a second leap, the blenny moves slowly towards it like a cat to its prey, or like a jumping spider; and, as soon as it gets within two or three inches of the insect, by a sudden spring contrives to pop its underset mouth directly over the unlucky victim. A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries
Somebody already addressed this elsewhere stating that the alleged "creakiness" numbers were contrived & exaggerated & mitigated by vehicle processing activity. The NASA Administrator Guessing Game Continues - NASA Watch
His most glaring error was a simple finish into an empty net from four yards that he contrived to miss. Times, Sunday Times
A rumour went round that Snowball had after all contrived to introduce poison into Napoleon's food. At eleven o'clock Squealer came out to make another announcement.
Sures must have had tongue in cheek when she contrived Ghirlandina, a cast-paper relief of an old, crooked, leaning tower, wonderfully abraded and polychromed.
These secular conditions, Bushman suggests, can be understood in two ways: for nonbelievers they help to explain Mormonism's "origins," a word Bushman eschews for the more neutral "beginnings"; for Mormons they can be studied as divinely contrived preparations for the dawning of a new era. Secrets of the Mormons
The dim, candlelit interior contrives to make them shift in dimension and depth; new nooks appear wherever you look, some of them illusions created by subtle mirrors.
Within days he contrives to drive a car while uninsured, start a relationship with another woman without notifying anyone, go hookey from his job and break the terms of his curfew. TV review: Public Enemies; The Fat Fighters; King George and Queen Mary: The Royals who Rescued the Monarchy
Its "longish denouement" is "corny and contrived, but we seize on it with relief - as we seize on the Mahleresque romanticism of Gabriel Yared's score. GreenCine Daily: The Lives of Others and The Decomposition of the Soul.
Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments, or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.
After a given electoral defeat, the left consoles itself with the illusion that a cabal of this nature would have contrived the lowest, slimiest smear it could have hoped to get away with, found some moneybags to fund it, snuck it into the public debate, and swayed the weak-minded. Deconstructing Obama
The young gentleman declared, rubbing his eyes, that he did not want it now; but however Fleda contrived to dispel that illusion, and bread and butter was found to have the same dulcifying properties at Queechy that it owns in all the rest of the world. Queechy
He knows that the return of Ilsa can only send Rick into a slough of self-pity, and so Sam contrives to break the fall.
January 6th, 2006 at 8: 40 pm click says: contriver: anatomically devise tributes: fertilized Lowell. speedups Think Progress » EU wants answers on secret prisons.
Anything else is artificial and contrived. Christianity Today
They are those rare specimens whose loyalty is uncontrived and non-cynical. Times, Sunday Times
Here it is too much to suppose that the _umbracula_ were contrived to make up for the want of shade in a country so covered with woodland as Italy was then; and the words "_sertis vincta_" show that there was some special meaning in the practice. The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus
Courcelles succeeded in robbing the prisoners who were in his charge in a more cautious manner than his predecessor; he, in short, contrived to subtract something for himself from any remittances which reached them, and paid them francs for livres. The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope — Volume 1
In this place, the ingenuity of the contriver and disposer of the walks had exerted itself to make the most of little space, and by screens, both of stone ornamented with rude sculpture, and hedges of living green, had endeavoured to give as much intricacy and variety as the confined limits of the garden would admit. The Abbot
Isaac must contrive the same story many years later with Rebecca to save his life from Abimelech king of the Philistines. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Deception And Desire: An Overview Of Genesis
Frankly, I'm more inclined to find the former more contrived, since a remorseless thug and repenting Christian is a believable dyad.
Some have praised the film for its uncontrived, natural feel.
One must see people undressed to judge truly of their shape; when they are dressed to go abroad, their clothes are contrived to conceal, or at least palliate the defects of it: as full-bottomed wigs were contrived for the Duke of Burgundy, to conceal his hump back. Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman
The unification feels contrived: it is only the humour that feels true. Times, Sunday Times
Why is Mrs. Bardell so earnestly entreated not to agitate herself about this warming – pan, unless (as is no doubt the case) it is a mere cover for hidden fire — a mere substitute for some endearing word or promise, agreeably to a preconcerted system of correspondence, artfully contrived by Pickwick with a view to his contemplated desertion, and which I am not in a condition to explain? The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
They could explore the area, learn its resources and contrive small comforts in their rooms.
There were some who said it was a monkish trick, contrived for his own ends by one of the brethren from Beauvais, but, less than six months later, all Scotland believed that the skeleton masquer at Jedburgh had, indeed, come to warn an unfortunate land of its approaching doom. Stories of the Border Marches
The young gentleman declared, rubbing his eyes, that he did not want it now; but, however, Fleda contrived to dispel that illusion, and bread and butter was found to have the same dulcifying properties at Queechy that it owns in all the rest of the world. Queechy
One of the pleasures of this novel is Cunningham's description of these intoxicating homes, from the "insistent glittery buzz" of a Manhattan party to a rambling mansion on the coast, "all fieldstone and gables, girded on three of its four sides by verandas; contrived, somehow, with a sense of absolute authenticity. Michael Cunningham's "By Nightfall," reviewed by Ron Charles
Attracted in turn to the youthful pulchritude of Laura and Claire, he describes his obsession for the latter as ‘pure desire in a void’, but it is a contrived passion that could be more aptly characterised as devoid of pure desire.
At least it is safe to say that both series manage to avoid those horribly contrived plot twists whose only purpose is to tie up loose ends. Times, Sunday Times
Credit to both sides for braving the elements and playing this game but, really, the weather contrived to make good football impossible and this game was very one-sided indeed.
In some places the use of more colloquial language seems to work and not detract from the original gospels, but in other places it came across to me as contrived.
She could only hope that he could somehow contrive to rescue or ransom them. THE WOLF AND THE DOVE
He's down-to-earth, gesticulating all over the place, with folksy aphorisms and punch lines all put in the right spots, but in an unforced, uncontrived matter.
Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. The Life of King Henry the Fifth
So saying, the indignant Sage nevertheless plunged the contemned pieces of gold into a large pouch which he wore at his girdle, which Toinette, and other abettors of lavish expense, generally contrived to empty fully faster than the philosopher, with all his art, could find the means of filling. Quentin Durward
Also, to secure the oar from the weather (for I used it in mild breezes as a flagstaff top of my pyramid from which to fly a flag I made me from one of my precious shirts), I contrived for it a covering of well-cured sealskins. Chapter 19
I do not think these coincidences were consciously contrived.
This reaction seems drastic and contrived to me. wha? in pa Graham move imperils Obama agenda
The U.S. government is to stop using the term "illegal enemy combatants," a label contrived by the Bush administration to justify detaining people indefinitely without ever bringing them before a court or even granting them prisoner-of-war status. Embassy
The death of William, his only legitimate son, in 1120 in the wreck of the White Ship brought Henry's whole carefully contrived edifice tumbling down.
Somehow they contrived to live on her tiny income.
The premise sounds contrived but the reality is insightful. Times, Sunday Times
Though supposedly posing a test of survival skills, the desert-island situation was rather contrived.
At times his work gets bogged down in its own abstract acrobatics, becoming contrived and overwrought.
The script is contrived and unbelievable.
The lawsuit says oil companies contrived a gasoline shortage in the early 1970s.
Over the past five years, each have contrived to reduce the events to farcical levels, at least once.
They're genuinely unspoiled because Canadians have a knack of preserving their heritage that's uncontrived, in spite of the demands placed on the environment by modern tourism.
Man is a product of nature, the argument runs, but societies are contrived by men.
But fast as they run they stay there so long as if they wanted not time to finish the race; for it is usual here to find some of the young company till midnight; and the thickets of the garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of gallantry; after they have been refreshed with the collation, which is here seldom omitted, at The Strand District The Fascination of London
It was as if a little mechanical toy should be contrived to make the motion of striking, and brilliantly _make_ it. Browning's Heroines
I often managed, in our short interviews, to give them notes which Madame Élisabeth had contrived to secrete from the searches of the municipals; these notes usually related to information desired by Their Majesties. The Ruin of a Princess
As for all other pretences, they are nothing but death and damnation dressed up in fair words and false shews; nothing but gins, and snares, and trapans for souls, contrived by the devil, and managed by such as the devil sets on work. Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions. Vol. II.
By some magic of duty, he had contrived to give his usually hebetudinous features an expression of enthusiasm. Within the Law
I was satisfied, however, that her account of the relevant conversations was an honest one, in the sense that they had not been deliberately contrived by her as a false account.
Upstairs, besides the bedrooms, was a little chapel with some remains of Gothic carving, and a few interesting pictures of the fifteenth century; a cunningly contrived priest-hole, and a long gallery lined with dusty books, whither my lord used to repair on rainy days. Vanishing England
They imagine or meditate, that is, they contrive means to suppress the rising interests of Christ's kingdom and are very confident of the success of their contrivances; they promise themselves that they shall run down religion and carry the day. Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
I made another six on the spot, and this is the way in which I contrived to write them, I had let the nail of my little finger grow long to serve as an earpick; I out it to a point, and made a pen of it. The memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
The builders of Night Watch had contrived to place the diesel engine in the most inaccessible part of the bilge. CORMORANT
‘Ruse’ applies to that which is contrived as a blind for one's real intentions or for the truth.
The lyrics - slightly surreal sometimes - are suitably uncontrived, simplistic and understandable.
By far the most blatantly contrived element of the play is the happy and neatly accounted for ending, with a stereotypical Hollywood double wedding scene.
The spoken word convinces the utterer; but a man can act against his own bad judgment without warping it, and contrive to win in a bad cause without maintaining that it is a good one, like the barrister. Eve and David
Their cheerful group did contrive to make my war seem rather pointless. Whicker's War
It all seems entirely uncontrived, but, on closer inspection, one notices geometric lines and angles. Times, Sunday Times
This is how a Carmelite is entreated by the Rule to move through the corridors of the convent; but in her case, it was too perfect; it was contrived to shield her. INVIDIA
A man of the right temperament gains greatly by a temporary estival transplantation; and if Johnny always contrived to seem dominant and prosperous at home, he now seemed lordly and triumphant abroad. On the Stairs
Meantime the hump of that awful bump Into the heavens contrived to get To so great a height that they called the wight The man with the minaret. INTERNET WIRETAP: The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce (1993 Edition)
The format must be manipulated and contrived to prevent anything extemporary or natural from happening on the screen.
Sir Phelim O'Neil, the most considerable man of his name tolerated in Ulster, was looked upon as the greatest acquisition, and at his castle of Kinnaird his associates from the neighbouring counties, under a variety of pretexts, contrived frequently to meet. A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics — Complete
Fortunately this morning Rose had contrived to rid himself of Naseby's services.
Power parting might sound contrived, but it's got to be better than this. Times, Sunday Times
I am concerned that any attempts to make this a continuation of the rest of the house will look artificial and contrived. Times, Sunday Times
So the notion that propaganda is bad but free speech is good is a carefully contrived nonsense designed to allow the IOC to kowtow to the bullyboy Chinese Communists. Archive 2008-04-06
'Twas not dumb chance that, to discover the fougade, or powder plot, contrived a miscarriage in the letter. The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy
But when that we speak of suffering, we do not speak of a dull and neglected suffering, but of a wise and industrious suffering, which draweth and contriveth use and advantage out of that which seemeth adverse and contrary; which is that properly which we call accommodating or applying. The Advancement of Learning
Similar displays contrived by architects occur on almost any sunny day inside many cathedrals, when the sun pierces the highest windows and a thousand rays gleam down on the altar.
If you can get beyond the fact that there's all sorts of contrived controversy thrown into the TV show, and deliberate ploys to create situations that will boost ratings, the level of talent is really pretty amazing.
It doesn't matter how many times we are told to drop everything and be one hundred percent uncontrived and natural, we still hold on to the letting go.
Nor could it be otherwise that the young men contrive great wealth; but they sit by night over the cards, and it passes from them, and they speak harsh words one to another, and in anger blows are struck, and there is bad blood between them. CHAPTER 2
Through the sparkling breadth of white, which seemed to glance my eyes away, and outside the humps of laden trees, bowing their backs like a woodman, I contrived to get along, half-sliding and half-walking, in places where a plain-shodden man must have sunk, and waited freezing till the thaw should come to him. Lorna Doone
The student had fabricated the story and, as it later appeared, contrived the voice of the second source as well.
We submit that even those who impeach the Deity for opening the door to sin would on second thoughts confess that morally free -- and therefore peccable -- beings stand on a higher level than marionettes, however faultlessly contrived to perform certain evolutions. Problems of Immanence: studies critical and constructive
The Maltings' interior design is obviously not to the judge's taste: it is said to be ‘entirely contrived, with a tricksy decor strong on salvaged somewhat quirky junk’.
Months ago Christchurch with its settled and established look contrasted cozily with much of the rest of New Zealand's cityscapes which convey an image of contrived modernity bordering on transience. Peter Isaac: Will Christchurch Have to Move Somewhere Else?
Together they constitute an unhackneyed commentary on a creative force who contrived to remain both forbidding and inescapable.
There were medley-pictures contrived of photographs cut out and grouped together in novel and unexpected relations; and there were set about divers patterns and pretences in keramics, as the decoration of earthen pots and jars was called. The Coast of Bohemia
And those who believe in the idea of the ultimate municipalization of most large industries, will continue to find in this non-localized class, working especially through the medium of Parliament, a persistent and effective obstruction to all such projects, unless such a rectification of areas can be contrived as will overtake the delocalization and the diffusion of interests that has been and is still going on. Mankind in the Making
By doing so they contrived to create, among other problems, the great gasoline shortage of the 1970s.
In fact, the entire notion of ‘scarcity’ is a bugaboo contrived by conservative economists to justify the distributional injustice of the capitalist system.
I contrived to give one of them a smart tap on the crown before they came to close quarters; but ere I could recover myself they were upon me, the staff was wrenched from my grasp, and I was as hard put to it as a stag bayed by hounds. Humphrey Bold A Story of the Times of Benbow
The horsemeat scandal was hardly out of the gate before thousands of amateur jokesmiths had entered the race with the professionals, jockeying to contrive the wittiest, most popular tweets about equine consumption.
The result is the sort of mess you might well expect a bunch of stoners to come up with; it's contrived, with the thinnest of possible plots, badly acted, and silly.
It is hard in retrospect to think quite how we contrived to slalom through last week.
Americans must focus on reason and civility over contrived irrational, fear driven emotionalism from the shrill right wing. 'Tea Party Express' trucks on with tour aimed at health care
Twice the big Englishman was presented with a gaping goal and the perfect ball but twice he somehow contrived to miss the target.
Charles' investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969 may have seemed like the enactment of some ancient ceremony, but it was contrived for the occasion.
They contrived a mask against poison gas.
Wednesday — her brothers, and some of their people, will scatteringly, and as if they knew nothing of you, [so we have contrived,] see you safe not only to London, but to her house at Clarissa Harlowe
But here the seaside elements are tongue in cheek rather than contrived. Times, Sunday Times
And how," said the emeer, "can we contrive to enter it, and divert ourselves with a view of its wonders? The Arabian Nights Their Best-known Tales
We are forced to watch scenes contrived by someone's late night imaginings of the way things should have been in romances now past, with requisite confessions of untold secrets and tender kisses of palms and the freedom to dance unwatched.
There is something natural and uncontrived about the presence of children at the liturgy in Byzantine and Oriental churches.
Very true, of course, but that a man as intelligent as him, a master contriver of logic games and word puzzles, could have so misunderstood the crux of the play is amazing.
In their opinion, he belonged to that goodly class of persons, who, having by hook or by crook, contrived to spend an hour in the Abbe of Weimar’s presence, afterwards abused the sacred narre of pupil. Maurice Guest
The projects themselves were trivial, closer to a test contrived by a college fraternity than a business school, and that was the point.
Although the situations are often ridiculous, the gags don't feel overly contrived.
The goal was gaping but somehow he contrived to clip the chance wide. The Sun
“A contrived sense of guiltiness,” wrote analyst Stephen Mitchell, “can serve as a psychological defense against a more genuine sense of pathos or sadness for oneself.” THE HUSBANDS AND WIVES CLUB
But any significant new insights into that strange, perverse Jacobean tragicomedy contrived to pass me by.
But the narrative is too episodic and the dialogue too contrived for it to have the same impact as Happiness. Times, Sunday Times
Traditional music fans might like to take note of a new CD titled ‘Fortune Favours The Merry’, an album of joyous, uncontrived music on fiddle and flute from two musicians with a lot of talent and experience.
The whirlwind velocity with which the larger combines recombine and split, enter and break off engagements, couple, reproduce offspring, contrive advantageous liaisons between progeny and distant cousins, and otherwise besport themselves in what sometimes seems like a corporate bacchanalia, has made it difficult for us to keep pace with all of it long enough to get it down on paper. Travels in Medialand
The whole thing is not uncontrived, obviously, and can feel a bit spreadsheety. Times, Sunday Times
a novel with a contrived ending
They contrived a mask against poison gas.
For a movie that seems contrived as a backdrop for madcap hilarity, there's precious little hilarity to distract you from the backdrop.
"I cannot trust thee," cried the Assassin; for when I am gone thou wilt return to thy old courses, and, by some ingenious shift or other, contrive to free thyself from the obligation of thy oath."
He will have gratuitously become a copartner in the guilt which hitherto has rested upon the souls of Andrew Johnson and his Northern and Southern satellites, but which thenceforth will rest on his soul also until he can contrive duly to alter these governments. History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States
The seemingly haphazard arrangement of pavilions was a contrived effect, it can be seen as a stand against the Beaux Arts tradition.
The lawsuit says oil companies contrived the oil shortage in the 1970s.
He set to work and made a good job of it, with a pledget of lint and strips of plaister, and meanwhile I speculated as to why, in all these bottles and jars and gallipots, neither nature nor art could contrive to store a drug magistral for the blow that had riven my heart asunder. The Yeoman Adventurer
It contrives to combine boastfulness, ignorance, insecurity and hostility in ample and self-reinforcing measures.
So, my dear, it comes out, that I myself was obliged to this deep contriver. Clarissa Harlowe
Had I understood the means by which I could contrive my own death, I would gladly have used them. Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
These are far less formal, contrived changes than those in the documentary novels.
“Do you find tinkering a very profitable profession?” said I. “Not very, your haner; but we contrive to get a crust and a drink by it.” Wild Wales : Its People, Language and Scenery
In this case, their activity would be considered as gainful work, provided the activity did not appear to be deliberately contrived to meet the scheme's requirements.
To complete his tapestry of interwoven plots, the resolution had to be brilliantly contrived.
although her popular image was contrived it served to inspire music and pageantry
But the narrative is too episodic and the dialogue too contrived for it to have the same impact as Happiness. Times, Sunday Times
This theme is played out through a dozen strangers who become related by artfully contrived coincidence.
In the end, a few short minutes in such contrived circumstances did little to further the debate on the something already described as a ‘national disgrace’.
Quoth I, ‘I will start and go to my house at once and suffer hard things for thy sake and contrive how thou mayst win access to him, for such access is difficult at this present.’ The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night
Public transit does not function in this kind of contrived environment.
Even those who do not condemn democracy out of hand have often contrived more subtle ways of disparaging it.
One critic described the movie as "a stale and hopelessly contrived comedy".
Instances are quoted of highly contrived antithesis, of mixed metaphor and elaborate circumlocution.
About nine-and-twenty years ago, the fencible men of Col were reckoned one hundred and forty, which is the sixth of eight hundred and forty; and probably some contrived to be left out of the list. A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland
Thus she contrives to intenerate [100] the granite and felspar, takes the boar out and puts the lamb in, and keeps her balance true. Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wendy", as it is a contrived name first found in a popular fiction, and given its similarity to "windy", is hardly any better -- as it suggests a verbal facility with rhetoric designed, pace Burke's conception of Dramatism and the pedant, to elide the varied and opposed interests of the so-called abled community and those of persons with disabilities. Readercon 16: Day 1
Many believed that the smooch was contrived for the camera but the identities of the sailor and the nurse have remained an unsolved mystery.
Richter contrived a scale to measure the force of an earthquake.
Just when one thinks the Justices might zig, they zag, but whichever way they turn, their reasoning seems increasingly arbitrary and contrived.
“If you could perhaps contrive to sit next to Miss Aberfoyle, that would be most wise,” Miss Milhouse was saying now. Uprising
Instead of the dodgy, contrived stereo mixes, these albums find that inimitable voice riding with the music rather than sitting on top of it. The Sun
However, instead of flinching from the set-up, contrived to tame its workers, the restaurant defended that this was a strategy aimed at upgrading the quality of its employees, mostly young people.
There was a sense of abandonment about the lawns, banks and shrubberies: she did not realize that it was contrived. DISPLACED PERSON
This is less critical for a formal pond, but natural ponds need siting where they look uncontrived. Times, Sunday Times
Her books are nothing but contrived morality tales, instilling in tween girls the ideas that their “one true love” will have a treacherous relationship with them, and if they give in to “temptation” Bella will die. 'New Moon': A Hater's Guide | EW.com
His intuition, the problems he set himself, and the solutions that he found, all exhibit something extraordinarily ingenious, something original in an uncontrived way.
For a man who spends so much time in the gym and out on the golf course, he contrives to keep remarkably poor health.
Since then, video of the so-called blowup has surfaced on YouTube, courtesy of Brazil's Multishow - and the whole thing seems a little contrived. Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Local News
You will contrive to let my Mother have the enclosed letter as soon as possible, as she may want some trifling article before she starts. and if they agree to ride on Monday the 18th you will apprize me of it by letter to be received on Monday morning. Letter 133
Couldn't you contrive a meeting between them? I think they'd be ideally suited.
Whereas the term "sentimental" can be used more often than not to hint at an indulgence in the emotionality it can imply, when speaking of a movie it might refer to the film being used to pull on the heartstrings and provoke the tear ducts of the audience in a contrived and calculated manner. Carol Smaldino: A Surprise of Sentiment and 50-50
BY this very elaborate and poetically ingenious figure, the prophet appears to be giving a contrived representation of the fact, that when God brings in the promised day of his universal reign in the earth, there will be a grand convergency of causes to prepare it, and, like so many concurrent prayers, to make common suit for it before Him. Christian Nurture.
Fortunately this morning Rose had contrived to rid himself of Naseby's services.
The goal was gaping but somehow he contrived to clip the chance wide. The Sun
Helpless beyond measure in all the duties of practical statesmanship, its members or their dependants have given proof of remarkable energy in the single department of peculation; and there, not content with the slow methods of the old-fashioned defaulter, who helped himself only to what there was, they have contrived to steal what there was going to be, and have peculated in advance by a kind of official post-obit. The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 40, February, 1861
I can take all sorts of convoluted and contrived plot-lines and bizarro science-faction, but as a person-of-gadgets, it aggravates me enormously when ordinary gadgets do extraordinary things.
Sketches of G. K.'s personal appearance abound, and if occasionally they contradict one another in detail they yet contrive to convey a vivid and fairly truthful impression of the "leonine" head, the bulky form, the gestures and mannerisms. Gilbert Keith Chesterton
As they ate, he put her at ease with his uncontrived interest in who she was and what she was about.
It carefully contrived the fantasies of a modern Roman Empire and grafted the passion for unrestricted authority on to the viceroy, governors and administrators who were greeted as proconsuls and centurians.
If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small amount to that. Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History
The world rang with stories of his romantic bravery, his gallantries, his eccentric manners, and his political intrigues, for he nearly contrived to be elected King of Poland.

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