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

The author’s few attempts at regret or self-reflection don’t land, nor do her efforts to contrive a kind of contemporary, Didion-inspired journalistic style that mixes meticulous observation with first-person intimacy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 3, 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

"From that day on he would contrive situations to get me alone," he said.

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2023

Once in a moment of thoughtlessness I asked how he would contrive to pay all his staff when the hospital was finally established, for it was certain many people would be needed to run it.

From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya

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

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

A couple of times in this short and occasionally exhilarating feature from Colombia, its director, Camilo Restrepo, contrives striking visual juxtapositions.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 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

Without being stagey or contrived, Mr. Mungiu explores a conflict with implications far beyond the courtroom showdown in his climax.

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

While he had fewer tattoos than his companion, they were more elaborate—not the self-inflicted work of an amateur but epics of the art contrived by Honolulu and Yokohama masters.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

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

For not in doing or contriving, nor in choosing between this course and another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is, and in part also what shall be.

From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien