Search the Dictionary

Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.

In a subtle manner; slyly; artfully; cunningly. Thou seest how subtly to detain thee I devise. Milton.

sight of; to oversee with the power of direction; to take care of with authority; to supervise; as, an officer superintends the building of a ship or the construction of a fort. The king may appoint a council, who may superintend the works of this nature. Bacon.

One who supervises; an overseer; an inspector; a superintendent; as, a supervisor of schools.

To adjust or devise so as to emit or respond to electric oscillations of a certain wave length; to tune; specif., to put (two or more instruments or systems of wireless telegraphy) in syntony with each other. -- Syn`to*ni*za"tion (#), n.

An early form of antimated-picture machine, devised in 1889 by Otto Anschütz of Berlin, in which the chronophotographs were mounted upon the periphery of a rotating wheel.

uch of the fall of these rocks, and the great damage done." Addison. -- To talk to, to advise or exhort, or to reprove gently; as, I will talk to my son respecting his conduct. [Colloq.]

Capable of being devised, or given by will.

Early; soon; in good season. Timely advised, the coming evil shun. Prior. Thanks to you, That called me timelier than my purpose hither, For I have gained by it. Shak.

A leap across or from one thing to another. [R.] "An unadvised transiliency." Glanvill.

se unfairly; to palm off. Authors have been trumped upon us. C. Leslie. To trump up, to devise; to collect with unfairness; to fabricate; as, to trump up a charge.

et good tidings. They did nothing but publish and trumpet all the reproaches they could devise against the Irish. Bacon.

An estate devised or granted in confidence that the devisee or grantee shall convey it, or dispose of the profits, at the will, or for the benefit, of another; an estate held for the use of another; a confidence respecting property reposed in one person, who is termed the trustee, for the benefit of another, who is cal…

A kind of instrument for holding work, as in filing. Same as Vise.

Of or pertaining to Alessandro Volta, who first devised apparatus for developing electric currents by chemical action, and established this branch of electric science; discovered by Volta; as, voltaic electricity.

A telescope devised for looking into a body of water.

the appearance or retirement of toy images. Peace to the artist whose ingenious thought Devised the weather house, that useful toy! Cowper. -- Weather molding, or Weather moulding (Arch.), a canopy or cornice over a door or a window, to throw off the rain. -- Weather of a windmill sail, the obliquity of the sail, or t…

ture; textile fabric; esp., something woven in a loom. Penelope, for her Ulysses' sake, Devised a web her wooers to deceive. Spenser. Not web might be woven, not a shuttle thrown, or penalty of exile. Bancroft.

e free end describes in vibrating the corresponding Lissajous figure. So called because devised by Sir Charles Wheatstone.

Odd or fantastic in appearance; quaintly devised; fantastic. "A whimsical chair." Evelyn.