connive
/kəˈnaɪv/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.64 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To secretly cooperate with other people in order to commit a crime or other wrongdoing; to collude, to conspire.
Intransitive verb
verb
Often followed by at: to pretend to be ignorant of something in order to escape blame; to ignore or overlook a fault deliberately.
Intransitive verb; Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "I might say, / That who despairs, acts; that who acts, connives / With God's relations set in time and space; [...]"
- "This very Law of Libel provides that "if any one connives with a guilty man and alleges him to be innocent, he renders himself liable to punishment.""
- "The Christchurch City Council has connived with the Government to take over all the surrounding local bodies, and it is not without comment that none of the Labour members from Christchurch has spoken on the Bill."
- "While some of Joe [Kennedy]'s classmates had connived to get into battle, joining the French Foreign Legion or the Canadian forces, Joe connived to get out."
- "“I don't know how I would have gotten through this without you.” “Oh, the feeling is mutual. I've always schemed and connived alone. But as a duo, it is, as you might say, "totes ridic!"” “(gasps) I would say that.”"
- "This species [...] differs from other species of this genus in the upper pinnæ being contracted, which are sinuously lobed, each lacinæ and lobe bearing a sorus, furnished with a nearly orbicular indusium, the free exterior margin of which connives with the margin of the lobe, [...]"
Etymology
From French conniver (“to ignore and thus become complicit in wrongdoing”), or directly from its etymon Latin con(n)īvēre (“close or screw up the eyes, blink, wink; overlook, turn a blind eye, connive”) (perhaps alluding to two persons involved in a scheme together winking to each other), from con- (prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several objects) + *nīvēre (related to nictō (“to blink, wink”), from Proto-Indo-European *kneygʷʰ- (“to bend, droop”)).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kəˈnaɪv/
- British English: /kəˈnaɪv/