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

He is sometimes inspired to make a poor choice, but, as with the silent comedians of old, the universe will contrive to save him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2024

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

“I wish we could contrive it,” said she; “but I cannot think of any tolerable pretence for going in;—no servant that I want to inquire about of his housekeeper—no message from my father.”

From "Emma" 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

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

He contrives a blowout weekend for him and his boy: a trip to Milwaukee and a major-league baseball game.

From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 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

I’m wondering if the justices are themselves creating these absurd notions or if appellate advocates are suggesting and steering the justices toward these contrived ways of thinking.

From Slate ● Aug. 16, 2026

An antigovernment paranoiac, she has contrived to disappear from public records and hides away inside a New York ministorage unit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

He thinks what is happening now with England and Wonderwall could not have been contrived.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

It could be contrived and improbable and old-fashioned in its triumphs snatched from the jaws of defeat, and I completely loved it.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026

But my mother was blessed that her village was one of the places where a mission school had contrived to stay open in spite of the government’s Bantu education policies.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah

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

But I wonder if such a connection can even be made between then and our friendship now, or if I’m contriving it to appease in me some compulsion for closure.

From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 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