contrive

When a lady’s maid and a houseguest’s valet fall in love, they contrive to unite their incompatible employers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

Of course, if the show becomes a fantabulous success, the Netflix engineers may contrive a way to make it live again; it’s happened before.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2025

Or might they contrive to block the constitutional change on the basis that for Mayotte alone it is too restrictive?

From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2024

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

The little collection of fruit- bearers growing by the river was his attempt to contrive, rain or no, a patch of the paradise, the green, apple-scented Eden, he envisioned.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

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

The travel industry contrives all manner of ways to objectify the locals for the benefit of tourists on a quest for the extraordinary or the “authentic.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2022

But for all its empathetic detail, “You Resemble Me” contrives a rather simplistic cause-and-effect tale, grasping too desperately at elusive answers.

From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2022

Lethem’s plot contrives for have Journeyman ride out the end of the world in a Maine idyll where people are both well-off and self-sufficient—a rarity in modern life.

From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2021

Technical proofs are the arguments that the orator contrives.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

His naiveté begins to feel contrived, a way to preserve a hazy aura of romance and menace.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

An independent disciplinary commission said that Eckert, the club's 33-year-old German boss, accepted he had orchestrated what it called a "contrived and determined plan from the top down".

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026

In parliament ahead of the vote, Bolojan defended his push for reforms, slamming the motion as "deceitful, cynical, and contrived."

From Barron's ● May 5, 2026

He Gets Us has been running these strange, Jesus-themed commercials for multiple Super Bowls in a row now, and they’re only getting more contrived.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2026

Abel felt she was being much too casual about his imminent end, as though it were only one of many she had contrived.

From "Abel's Island" by William Steig

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

Redondo hit the post twice in a matter of seconds - first seeing her header brilliantly tipped on to the woodwork by Daphne van Domselaar, before contriving to turn the rebound off the same upright.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2023

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

I counted to one hundred as I rocked, contriving the patience to get one down in order to take up another.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver