Search the Dictionary

To plan; to contrive; esp., to form a scheme with the purpose of doing harm; to contrive artfully; to plot. "How long will you machinate!" Sandys.

That which is devised; a device; a hostile or treacherous scheme; an artful design or plot. Devilish machinations come to naught. Milton. His ingenious machinations had failed. Macaulay.

One who machinates, or forms a scheme with evil designs; a plotter or artful schemer. Glanvill. Sir W. Scott.

alled a pastoral poem, containing some tender and delicate, though simple, thought. Whose artful strains have oft delayed The huddling brook to hear his madrigal. Milton.

to guide by careful or delicate treatment; to wield with address; to make subservient by artful conduct; to bring around cunningly to one's plans. It was so much his interest to manage his Protestant subjects. Addison . It was not her humor to manage those over whom she had gained an ascendant. Bp. Hurd.…

Management with address or artful design; adroit proceeding; stratagem.

to manipulate a convention of delegates; to manipulate the stock market; also, to manage artfully or fraudulently; as, to manipulate accounts, or election returns.

Artful management; as, the manipulation of political bodies; sometimes, a management or treatment for purposes of deception or fraud.

Anything artfully made difficult; an enigma.

o used palaver;to talk idly or deceitfully; to employ flattery; to cajole; as, to palaver artfully. Palavering the little language for her benefit. C. Bront

A pretended or apparent omission; a figure by which a speaker artfully pretends to pass by what he really mentions; as, for example, if an orator should say, "I do not speak of my adversary's scandalous venality and rapacity, his brutal conduct, his treachery and malice." [Written also paralepsis, paralepsy, paralipsis…

plicated, and difficult to be unraveled or understood; as, to perplex one with doubts. No artful wildness to perplex the scene. Pope. What was thought obscure, perplexed, and too hard for our weak parts, will lie open to the understanding in a fair view. Locke.

Folded; doubled over; braided; figuratively, involved; intricate; artful. Time shall unfold what plaited cunning hides. Shak.

han to a principle; hence, in a good sense, wise; prudent; sagacious; and in a bad sense, artful; unscrupulous; cunning; -- said of persons. Politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy. Shak.

Politic; wise; also, artful. [Obs.] Sterne. Political economy, that branch of political science or philosophy which treats of the sources, and methods of production and preservation, of the material wealth and prosperity of nations.

Politicly; artfully. [Obs.] Knolles.

Cunning; using artifice; politic; artful. "Ill-meaning politician lords." Milton.

In a politic manner; sagaciously; shrewdly; artfully. Pope.

dministration of public affairs; the advancement of candidates to office; in a bad sense, artful or dishonest management to secure the success of political candidates or parties; political trickery. When we say that two men are talking politics, we often mean that they are wrangling about some mere party question. F. W…

Artful; deceitful; skillful. [Obs.] "Cunning sleights and practick knavery." Spenser.