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To prepare; to make ready; to contrive; to provide; as, to lay a snare, an ambush, or a plan.

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.

To bring about; to contrive. Shak.

A contriver; an intriguer. Shak.

Liable to censure; exposed to punishment; reprehensible; blameworthy. "The contrived and interested schemes of ...obnoxious authors." Bp. Fell. All are obnoxious, and this faulty land, Like fainting Hester, does before you stand Watching your scepter. Waller.

To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot. [Obs.] He lost life . . . upon a nice point subtilely devised and packed by his enemies. Fuller.

of surnames . . . have obscured the truth of our pedigrees. Camden. His vanity labored to contrive us a pedigree. Milton. I am no herald to inquire of men's pedigrees. Sir P. Sidney. The Jews preserved the pedigrees of their tribes. Atterbury.

To scheme; to devise; to contrive; to form in design; as, to plan the conquest of a country. Even in penance, planning sins anew. Goldsmith.

, to play off tricks. -- To play one's cards, to manage one's means or opportunities; to contrive. -- Played out, tired out; exhausted; at the end of one's resources. [Colloq.]

To contrive a plan or stratagem; to scheme. The prince did plot to be secretly gone. Sir H. Wotton.

One who plots or schemes; a contriver; a conspirator; a schemer. Dryden.

Contrived, done, or existing subsequently. "Postliminious after applications of them to their purposes." South.

To think on, and revolve in the mind, beforehand; to contrive and design previously; as, to premeditate robbery. With words premeditated thus he said. Dryden.

Devised, contrived, or planned beforehand; preconceived; premeditated; aforethought; -- usually placed after the word it qualifies; as, malice prepense. This has not arisen from any misrepresentation or error prepense. Southey.

To contrive; to bring about; to effect; to cause. By all means possible they procure to have gold and silver among them in reproach. Robynson (More's Utopia) . Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall. Shak.

To cast forward or revolve in the mind; to contrive; to devise; to scheme; as, to project a plan. What sit then projecting peace and war Milton.

Something which perplexes or embarrasses; especially, a toy or a problem contrived for testing ingenuity; also, something exhibiting marvelous skill in making.

the form of a cylinder open at one end, or a hollow ball of brass with two apertures, so contrived as to greatly intensify a musical tone by its resonance. It is used for the study and analysis of complex sounds.

A brass wind instrument, like a bass trumpet, so contrived that it can be lengthened or shortened according to the tone required; -- said to be the same as the trombone. [Written also sagbut.] Moore (Encyc. of Music).

One who contrives to give himself vexation. [Archaic.] Sir P. Sidney.