How to Use contrive in a Sentence

contrive

verb
  • The prisoners contrived a way to escape.
  • He contrived a meeting with the president.
  • There were so many things that contrived to guide us to this format.
    Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 6 Mar. 2023
  • The setup feels forced, even contrived, at this late date.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 24 Mar. 2024
  • This time, though, there’s no theme to contrive to fit; just look at the headlines about events and trends of the current day.
    Washington Post, 10 June 2021
  • The whole city, this vast, thirsty project sprouting from the desert, is contrived—and no less beautiful for it.
    Will Bahr, The Atlantic, 23 Jan. 2025
  • Trump shot back, claiming that her crowd sizes are contrived.
    Mabinty Quarshie, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 11 Sep. 2024
  • The House may even contrive a reason to impeach the President, if only for the fun of it.
    David Remnick, The New Yorker, 1 May 2022
  • One man even contrived somehow to get across while still in iron fetters.
    Adam Goodheart, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Sep. 2023
  • Everything has been contrived with a short-term plan or long-term plan.
    Liza Lentini, SPIN, 12 May 2023
  • The movie’s attempt to capture the discord is contrived at best, laughable at worst.
    Madison Bloom, Pitchfork, 10 Dec. 2024
  • Now, parents don't have to contrive a scheme to keep their kids from eating too much candy in one day.
    Hannah Yasharoff, USA TODAY, 21 Oct. 2020
  • That might be due to O.A.R.'s talent for ad libbing and contriving new ways to perform the same song.
    Patrick Cooley, cleveland.com, 25 June 2017
  • That’s how the media contrive to shape our values and sense of history.
    Armond White, National Review, 16 Feb. 2024
  • If any of her work were turned into a screenplay, there would be no need to contrive sets or costumes.
    Washington Post, 2 Dec. 2020
  • That sounds like just the kind of deep strategy µZero and Artuµ would contrive.
    Dr. Will Roper, Popular Mechanics, 19 Jan. 2021
  • The state and energy are read out and used to contrive a new guess for the ground state configuration.
    Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 14 Sep. 2017
  • That happens when the plot contrives to conveniently take both her husband and her father-in-law away from the house at the same time.
    Kenneth Turan, Detroit Free Press, 27 July 2017
  • He is sometimes inspired to make a poor choice, but, as with the silent comedians of old, the universe will contrive to save him.
    Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2024
  • But while none of these scenes would look out of place on a postcard, there’s nothing contrived about Pittenweem.
    Jessica MacDonald, Travel + Leisure, 4 Oct. 2024
  • More than that, Houck somehow contrives to build violins as well.
    Myung J. Chun, latimes.com, 27 Jan. 2017
  • The link that connects the past to the present is one that only the most old-fashioned of fictional imaginations would dare to contrive.
    Charles McNulty, latimes.com, 23 Oct. 2017
  • As a result, Liverpool no longer has to sweat so much for its victories or contrive to throw them away.
    Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes, 25 Nov. 2024
  • United’s fragile defense, though, nearly contrived to throw away the chance of glory.
    Rob Harris, The Denver Post, 26 Feb. 2017
  • Athena’s husband’s problems are a little less of a ticking time bomb, but equally contrived.
    Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 14 Nov. 2024
  • But today’s nicknames, many of them contrived, most of them barely known outside the clubhouse, whiff when matched against baseball’s best.
    Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post, 10 Aug. 2019
  • There is a wryness to many of these poems, and some contrive a mordant introspection.
    Frank Wilson, Philly.com, 19 Feb. 2018
  • And as friends, strangers and even the local news station join the herculean effort, clichéd stabs at greater meaning make this true story feel strangely contrived.
    Jen Yamato, Washington Post, 20 Feb. 2024
  • Please, no more contrived hand-wringing and pearl-clutching about the Trump dictatorship.
    Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 4 July 2024
  • The moral guardrails that hold our society together are not anything contrived by humans, but given by God.
    Lauren Green, Fox News, 17 Nov. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'contrive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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