(v. t.) To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to invent; to design; to plan.
(v. i.) To make devices; to form designs; to plan; to scheme; to plot.
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.
Pretext
Definition:
(n.) Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive; pretense; disguise.
Example Sentences:
(1) • In an emergency UN security council meeting, the US ambassador accused Russia of "looking for a pretext to invade" Ukraine.
(2) "I urge both the monks and the lay Tibetans of the area not to do anything that might be used as a pretext by the local authorities to massively crack down on them.
(3) "Financial aid for this group was usually provided from London under the pretext of charitable donations.
(4) Naureen Shah, director of Amnesty International USA’s security and human rights programme, acknowledged the need for governments to assess their approach in the aftermath of major attacks but said: “What we don’t want to see is government using the Paris attacks as a pretext for extending surveillance authorities or pushing back against reforms that even the government acknowledged as necessary.” Some of the hawkish responses to events in Paris “raise a question of whether there’s an exploiting of public fear and anger and anxiety to push legislation through”, she added.
(5) They also suggest that although Putin was using the rights of the Russian minority in Lithuania and Latvia as a pretext to cause trouble, the rights of Russian minorities needed protection.
(6) The first 80-page file on Smith compiled in 1970 contained allegations from eight men that they were abused as teenagers by Smith on the pretexts of either a medical examination or punishment for misbehaviour.
(7) All over Europe people are being forced by national governments and the EU to suffer the most extreme neoliberal policies under the pretext of solving this crisis,” she said.
(8) In the Brezhnev-era Soviet Union, writers and activists were commonly detained on mental health pretexts.
(9) Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian government not to use Barakat’s death “as a pretext for trampling upon human rights”.
(10) The loss of Section 215 will deprive the NSA of the legal pretext for its bulk domestic phone records dragnet.
(11) Pope Francis has spoken out against those who use religion as a pretext for violence and oppression, in his clearest denunciation yet of the Islamic state militants murdering their way across Syria and Iraq.
(12) "If you listen to what Lloyds said in 2011 when they took the initial £3.2bn charge – that was used for a pretext for making a clawback on 12 executives.
(13) Physical illness may give rise to feelings of hopelessness to which the physician must stay attuned; the patient may also use physical illness as a pretext for seeking help for deeper things that trouble him.
(14) As the White House struggled to impose pressure on Putin, Kerry accused the Russian leader of acting “in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped-up pretext”.
(15) The idea that it could carry on without even the pretext that I was involved in CND when I was a member of parliament is completely and utterly outrageous.” Ruddock said she has written to May today demanding answers and would write again to whoever was the new home secretary after the election.
(16) The pretexts — that Queensland has no house of review, and that the state is in receipt of Commonwealth money — are not new developments.
(17) One week later a 50-minute class in acupuncture and Chinese medicine was given in a community health class to one of the two pretexted groups and one of the two untested groups.
(18) The institute said in a statement: "Contrary to its claims to be a marine wildlife conservation group, in reality [Sea Shepherd] are dedicated to fundraising and to spread violence under pretext of protecting whales.
(19) Their meeting occurred after a series of events that point to this.” Netanyahu made the claim – which he also made in 2012 – to illustrate what he said was the Palestinian history of using holy sites in Jerusalem as pretexts for committing acts of violence against Jews.
(20) "May no one use religion as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all to the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom," he said.