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

As Mariko, Sawai, recently seen in “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” is the picture of melancholic resolve, and the filmmakers contrive to highlight her otherworldly beauty, filling the screen with her face at every opportunity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 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

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

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 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

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

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

In the written reasons of the punishment, Southampton's conduct was described as "contrived and determined plan from the top down" which head coach Eckert had approved.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 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

On the former score, Adams had the misfortune to become the first occupant of what he described as “the most insignificant office that ever the Invention of Man contrived or his Imagination conceived.”

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

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

In time I hope to find some means of overpowering the pilot and contriving my escape.

From Slate ● Apr. 7, 2020

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

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee