contrive

The members must contrive to pay the new guy off, which means redeeming the deadbeat’s paper.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 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

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

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

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

Stephenson contrives a captivating voice for his hero.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 1, 2020

Technical proofs are the arguments that the orator contrives.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

"I think that there's a strategy to divide and conquer and to create a very contrived confusion," he argues.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

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

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

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

If Gollum had contrived to follow them, he remained unseen and unheard.

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

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

Soon, she’s contriving all sorts of convoluted plans to entice the animal out of the forest and entrap it — and when she succeeds, “Wild” takes a strange, feral turn.

From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2022

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

From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee