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To digest in the mind; to devise; to make up; to contrive; to plan; to plot. He was a man of a feeble stomach, unable to concoct any great fortune. Hayward.

modify, the principal obligation; or, in case of a will, to suspend, revoke, or modify a devise or bequest. It is also the case of a future uncertain event, which may or may not happen, and on the occurrence or non-occurrence of which, the accomplishment, recission, or modification of an obligation or testamentary dis…

To devise; to invent; to set in order; to arrange; as, to construct a theory of ethics.

To bring about by counsel or contrivance; to devise; to contrive. [Obs.] Thou hast consulted shame to thy Hab. ii. 10.

Capable of being contrived, planned, invented, or devised. A perpetual motion may seem easily contrivable. Bp. Wilkins.

To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to invent; to design; to plan. What more likely to contrive this admirable frame of the universe than infinite wisdom. Tillotson. neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life. Hawthorne.

One who contrives, devises, plans, or schemas. Swift.

honest management, or artifice. [Obs.] the very jesuits themselves . . . can not possibly devise any juggling conveyance how to shift it off. Hakewill.

iting care or nicety; artfully constructed; elaborate; wrought with elegance or skill. To devise curious works. Ex. xxxv. 32 His body couched in a curious bed. Shak.

be held in subjection by such a dapper little man. Milton. The dapper ditties that I wont devise. Spenser. Sharp-nosed, dapper steam yachts. Julian Hawthorne.

That which is devised, or formed by design; a contrivance; an invention; a project; a scheme; often, a scheme to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. His device in against Babylon, to destroy it. Jer. li. 11. Their recent device of demanding benevolences. Hallam. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. Job v. 12.…

Capable of being devised, invented, or contrived.

One who devises, or gives real estate by will; a testator; -- correlative to devisee.

right way; to go astray, in a figurative sense; to do wrong; to sin. Do they not err that devise evil Prov. xiv. 22.

An artificial language, intended to be universal, devised by Dr. Zamenhof, a Russian, who adopted the pseudonym "Dr. Esperanto" in publishing his first pamphlet regarding it in 1887. The vocabulary is very largely based upon words common to the chief European languages, and sounds peculiar to any one language are elimi…

extortion. Take away your exactions from my people. Ezek. xlv. 9. Daily new exactions are devised. Shak. Illegal exactions of sheriffs and officials. Bancroft.

To think out; to find out or discover by thinking; to devise; to contrive. "Excogitate strange arts." Stirling. This evidence . . . thus excogitated out of the general theory. Whewell.

into effect in time to come, or to take effect on a future contingency; as, an executory devise, reminder, or estate; an executory contract. Blackstone.

Means devised in an exigency; shift.

The quality of being done or devised extempore [Obs.] Johnson.