devise
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈvaɪz/
rhymes: -aɪz
Forms: form: devises
form: devising
form: devised
form: devised
Etymology: PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From Middle English devisen, devysen, from Old French deviser, from Vulgar Latin devisō, from Latin dīvisō, frequentative of dīvidō.
Senses: examples: text: to devise an argument; to devise a machine, or a new system of writing
text: Therefore to make complaynt
Of such mysadvysed
Parsons and dysgysed,
Thys boke we have devysed, […]
ref: c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 20–23:
text: His fiery eies are fixt vpon the earth.
As if he now deuiſ’d some Stratageme:
Or meant to pierce Auernus darkſome vauts.
To pull the triple headed dog from hell.
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
text: devising schemes to realize his ambitious views
ref: 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:
text: Thus, the task of the linguist devising a grammar which models the linguistic competence of the fluent native speaker is to devise a finite set of rules which are capable of specifying how to form, interpret, and pronounce an infinite set of well-formed sentences.
ref: 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational Grammar, Cambridge: University Press, →ISBN, page 23:
text: Thailand goes to the polls on Sunday under a new system that critics say the military government has devised to prevent the most popular political party, which has won every election since 2001, from returning to power.
ref: 2019 March 21, Setboonsarg, Chayut; Johnson, Kay, “Numbers game: How Thailand's election system favors pro-army parties”, in Robert Birsel, editor, Reuters, Reuters, retrieved 23 Mar 2019:
synonyms: lay
glosses: To use one’s intellect to plan or design (something).
glosses: To leave (property) in a will.
examples: text: I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer.
ref: 1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:
glosses: To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.
examples: text: For wisedome is most riches; fooles therefore / They are, which fortunes doe by vowes deuize,
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30:
glosses: To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.
examples: text: I do protest I neuer iniur’d thee,
But lou’d thee better then thou can’st deuise:
Till thou shalt know the reason of my loue.
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
glosses: To imagine; to guess.
Derived terms: devisable
devisal
devisee
give, devise, and bequeath
redevise