Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.
- transitive verb To make up; fabricate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To come upon; light upon; meet with; find.
- To find out by original study or contrivance; create by a new use or combination of means; devise the form, construction, composition, method, or principle of.
- In general, to produce by contrivance; fabricate; concoet; devise: as, to
invent the plot of a story; to invent an excuse or a falsehood. - Synonyms 2 and 3. Discover, Invent. See
discover and invention.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To come or light upon; to meet; to find.
- transitive verb To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; -- applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine.
- transitive verb To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; -- in a good or a bad sense
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To design a new process or mechanism.
- verb To create something fictional for a particular purpose.
- verb obsolete To come upon; to find; to find out; to discover.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort
- verb make up something artificial or untrue
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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That is, critics who use the term invent the boundaries that are supposedly being "transgressed."
Subversion 2004
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That is, critics who use the term invent the boundaries that are supposedly being "transgressed."
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To invent a Latin word which ought to have been invented before my time, 'non interrumpunt at _interrupturiunt_.'
The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 2 Thomas De Quincey 1822
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"To invent is a game and it is really fun," he says.
French Master Chef Reinvents His Art Emma-Kate Symons 2010
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There is no need in invent projects for us to play together like children.
Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost? A Freakonomics Quorum - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com 2008
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Framing the argument as though there was no difference between the 1-Click patent and the patent for a new molecule that cost a billion dollars to invent is a deceptive practice. blog comments powered by Disqus
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They also missed some good ones: didn't Heinlein invent the waldo and the waterbed?
CNet: 10 Ways Science Fiction Influenced Real-Life Science 2007
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I have, therefore, listed Dr. Samuel Johnson in some of my memorandums of the principal planters and favourers of the enclosures, under a name which I took the liberty to invent from the Greek, Papadendrion.
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If we can demonstrate the fact that we call invent anything, mould a piece of statuary or write a book as well as anyone, then we shall do more to solve the negro problem than all preaching and complaining can do?
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If we can demonstrate the fact that we call invent anything, mould a piece of statuary or write a book as well as anyone, then we shall do more to solve the negro problem than all preaching and complaining can do?
sarahlena commented on the word invent
you create your own story
May 14, 2009
bilby commented on the word invent
I know. It's just that I feel like an extra in it :-(
May 14, 2009