contrive

Others applauded that decision, content not to trot out their work-party ensemble and contrive the holiday cheer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025

In the coming days, he’ll contrive to meet her here and there, until they get friendly, and friendlier.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2025

One of the first things McCartney did when he took over the Buffs in 1982 was contrive a rivalry with Nebraska and ban red in the football building.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 6, 2023

First, undercover officers contrive a situation to cross paths with the target of an investigation.

From New York Times ● Apr. 9, 2023

“How can you contrive to write so even?”

From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

So even if the U.S. somehow contrives to lose to Paraguay, draw with Australia, and lose to Turkey, for example, it’s highly likely they’ll get into the Round of 16.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

By telling the story through a fictionalized filial relationship, and locating the initial part of the movie in Senegal, Vadepied, the director, contrives to personalize the war’s horror for the African conscripts.

From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2023

With the younger son taking over as jailer, this goes on for a century, until Dream contrives to escape.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2022

And while the Survivor season contrives to have its David come out ahead, White’s fictionalized version offers no such assurances about the triumph of the underdog.

From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2021

Technical proofs are the arguments that the orator contrives.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

There is something quite cruel and contrived in how Mr. Rock puts his protagonist through trials to serve his superficial Hollywood fable about the high price and sour smell of success.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

In a film full of contrived indignities, this is the most maddening, suggesting that anyone watching the film is no more clever than the “Fossil Fools” audience members.

From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026

Scenes designed to advance the plot feel more contrived than ones in which characters just share thoughts and feelings, but there are plenty of those.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

The prosecutor said evidence from the boy - now in his 20s - was also "straightforward and not contrived".

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

Vermont is Volvos and antique shops and country inns with cutely contrived names like Quail Hollow Lodge and Fiddlehead Farm Inn.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

The FDA implicitly concedes that the RP1 results are impressive by contriving ridiculous reasons to argue they could be exaggerated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026

Warren Zaire-Emery was punished for contriving to strike the post with the goal gaping as Mats Hummels arrowed in a towering header to score for Dortmund shortly after.

From BBC ● May 7, 2024

Perhaps his primary knack was for contriving a tension between immaculate optics and human entropy.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 25, 2023

Figuring out a flow chart of blame is contriving chaos into organization.

From Slate ● Mar. 8, 2021

We worked by contriving intricate and open-ended emotional conspiracies.

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee