connive

Circa 1600, from French conniver, from Latin connīveō (“wink”), or directly from Latin, from com- (“together”) + base akin to nictō (“I wink”), from Proto-Indo-European *knei-gwh- (“to bend”).[1] See also English nictate (“to wink”), from same Latin base. The sense comes from extension of “to wink” into “to wink (at a crime), to be privy”.

• IPA^(key): /kəˈnaɪv/
• Rhymes: -aɪv

connive (third-person singular simple present connives, present participle conniving, simple past and past participle connived)

1. To cooperate with others secretly in order to commit a crime; to collude.
2. To plot or scheme.
3. To pretend to be ignorant of something in order to escape blame; to ignore a fault deliberately.
   • Jeremy Taylor

     to connive at what it does not approve

   • Burke

     In many of these, the directors were heartily concurring; in most of them, they were encouraging, and sometimes commanding; in all they were conniving.

   • Macaulay

     The government thought it expedient, occasionally, to connive at the violation of this rule.

4. (archaic) To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink.
   • Spectator

     The artist is to teach them how to nod judiciously, and to connive with either eye.

• connivance
• connivent
• conniver
• connivingly

connīvē

1. second-person singular present active imperative of connīveō