Thesaurus: invent

Related headwords

Definitions

1. v. t. To come or light upon; to meet; to find.
2. v. t. To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; -- applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine.
3. v. t. To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; -- in a good or a bad sense; as, to invent the machinery of a poem; to invent a falsehood.
4. v. come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort
5. v. concoct something artificial or untrue
6. 1. To come or light upon; to meet; to find. [Obs.] And vowed never to return again, Till him alive or dead she did invent. Spenser. 2. To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; -- applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine. Thus first Necessity invented stools. Cowper. 3. To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; -- in a good or a bad sense; as, to invent the machinery of a poem; to invent a falsehood. Whate'er his cruel malice could invent. Milton. He had invented some circumstances, and put the worst possible construction on others. Sir W. Scott. Syn. -- To discover; contrive; devise; frame; design; fabricate; concoct; elaborate. See Discover.
7. v:100 v. come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort