(a.) Contrived for the purpose of making a show, or gaining applause; deceptive; unreal.
Example Sentences:
(1) 'Fashionable theories and permissive claptrap set the scene for a society in which old values of discipline and restraint were denigrated.'
(2) Responding to May’s comments, the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, called the slogan “jingoistic claptrap” and said it showed no further policy development.
(3) The fact that he chose possibly the least suitable place, time and context to utter his claptrap, only to fall asleep a little later during the Milan opening of the Shoah museum at which he was attending, might show that he is not as in control of the headlines as he used to be.
(4) Visitors to the US theme park will get "a noisy American" experience, with "claptrap", says Berger, noting that "Harry Potter fans are very passionate people.
(5) UK will have under 18 months to reach deal, says EU Brexit broker Read more The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, called the slogan “jingoistic claptrap” and said it showed no further policy development.
(6) To Marr’s perfectly reasonable questions he cried: “BBC claptrap!” God knows, the mayor can turn on the charm like no other politician.
(7) Thus the usual claptrap about "diversity" being something to celebrate is meaningless when it is not publicly acknowledged.
(8) At a recent sermon in Trinity Wall Street in New York City, supposedly the richest Anglican parish in the world, Welby said: “The old sermons that we have heard so often in England, which I grew up with – which if you boiled them down all they effectively said was, ‘Wouldn’t the world be a nicer place if we were all a bit nicer?’ – that is the kind of moral claptrap that Jesus does not permit us to accept.” Welby sounds confused here but since he is by no means an idiot it’s worth trying to think about what it is that makes social media destructive in a way that’s slightly different to all the other ways people can hurt one another.
(9) Defending these changes has spurred local government minister Brandon Lewis to new heights of claptrap.
(10) He went on: "His Thatcherite claptrap shows that this country has passed into the hands of an out-of-touch, unaccountable elite.
(11) It's reprehensible that he talks such claptrap about a policy that is divisive, illogical, illiberal, hypocritical and intended as Valium for the Tory shires hyperventilating over cohabitation with the Liberal-Democrats.
(12) He said: "We should not fall for the Tory claptrap that we left Britain broke and broken."
(13) But bad ideas do thrive in conditions of maximum claptrap.
(14) While most office holders probably don't believe the "reactionary and paranoid claptrap" they peddle, "they cynically feed the worst instincts of their fearful and angry low-information political base".
(15) More importantly these corporations, whether they're selling information or consumer goods, collude in a pervasive myth and toil to keep us uninformed on important matters such as the environment, economic inequality, and distracted by vapid celebrity claptrap.
(16) Don't look for consistency, either: MacMillan could veer between genius, excess and claptrap in a trice – and deciding which is which still divides opinion to this day.
(17) School architecture is just more highfalutin liberal claptrap, governors are " local worthies seeking a badge of status and the chance to waffle about faddy issues ", the national curriculum is a ball and chain, and teachers are part of a leftwing conspiracy.
Contrivance
Definition:
(n.) The act or faculty of contriving, inventing, devising, or planning.
(n.) The thing contrived, invented, or planned; disposition of parts or causes by design; a scheme; plan; atrifice; arrangement.
Example Sentences:
(1) "If there is some kind of contrived scheme or vehicle, ie it's obvious that the purpose of the scheme is to avoid paying VAT and it's taking advantage of a loophole and we consider that tax is actually owed on the scheme, rather than just being a case of sensible tax planning … we can make the judgment that this is not legitimate tax planning.
(2) Here they led within 90 seconds against a team whose fragility has been all too clear this term, and still contrived to wilt almost apologetically.
(3) And I'll be catching several buzzy acts who I contrived to miss last year – Ivo Graham, Ursula Burns, Trygve (Squidboy) Wakenshaw, Phil Wang, Paul Currie.
(4) Rafael Benítez must contrive a way of picking this team up, as well as a starting lineup who are relatively fresh for Elland Road and a cup tie that once would have stirred the senses.
(5) When Grayson remarks to the men he meets that his transvestism allows him enough distance from maleness to view it as an observer, rather than bristle they nod, quietly ponder for a moment and then step back themselves, apparently accepting that maleness is such a weird contrivance that to look at it with critical eyes is Not Even A Thing.
(6) Capello's men have contrived to fail more severely than the line‑up beaten 4-2 by Uruguay in 1954.
(7) Support is provided by intercostal angiography, and by observations upon normal anatomy, the pathological anatomy of mature scoliotic spines and the anatomy of contrived scoliosis in normal spines.
(8) The natural and the contrived social experiments are reviewed as well as the issue of needed research on the effects of regulation on science and on the protection of privacy.
(9) Even after the Daily Mail's Jack Tinker (obituary, October 29 1996) contrived for Shulman's career as a theatre critic to be brought to an end in 1991, he continued to write a column for the Evening Standard on art affairs - until he was 83.
(10) Some patients find that the risk of a spontaneous attack is lessened following a self-induced seizure and can therefore contrive their fits to occur only in situations which are safe and convenient.
(11) Some contrivances in anastomosing a conduit were also proposed to achieve an excellent result.
(12) "It's more contrived in terms of 'good girl gone bad' or 'I'm so edgy – I'm twerking in this context.'
(13) Always a contrived fiction, this sequence juxtaposes a poignant fantasy of a fully fit presenter with the merciless world of hard news.
(14) A coded panel of 100 contrived dried blood spots prepared form well characterised anti-HIV-1 and anti-HIV-2 positive sera and an anti-HIV negative serum was distributed to eight testing centres.
(15) Despite papal fiction being such a crowded church, Harris, in Conclave , contrives a twist involving the number of cardinal-electors that seems to me completely new, showing that the genre still has possibilities.
(16) Although oral administration volume is limited in small animal model, enhancing its antitumor effect may be possible in clinical application by contriving the method of administration.
(17) Events went from bad to ridiculous for the Redbirds in the second inning, when Stephen Drew popped the ball up into the infield and catcher Yadier Molina and pitcher Adam Wainwright both moved towards the ball and then contrived to call each other off and watched the ball drop harmlessly between them.
(18) "We will dedicate our seventh goal to our wives, and the eighth to our dogs," quipped one player, while the manager, Jupp Derwall, promised that if his team contrived to lose he would "jump on the first train back to Munich".
(19) The tasks were presented in various ways: by means of a table-top simulation on which traffic scenarios had been contrived; by means of photographs of road situations; and by taking the children to real-world sites in the streets near their schools.
(20) The amendment left the government facing the prospect of scuttling its own legislation to give the tax office greater powers to stop global companies using “artificial or contrived arrangements” to avoid tax obligations.