devise

From Middle English devisen, devysen, from Old French deviser, from Vulgar Latin devisō, from Latin dīvisō, frequentative of dīvidō.

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• Rhymes: -aɪz

devise (third-person singular simple present devises, present participle devising, simple past and past participle devised)

1. (transitive) To use one's intellect to plan or design (something).

   to devise an argument; to devise a machine, or a new system of writing

   • Bancroft

     devising schemes to realize his ambitious views

   • 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational Grammar, Cambridge: University Press, →ISBN, page 23:

     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.

   • Setboonsarg, Chayut; Johnson, Kay (2019-03-21), “Numbers game: How Thailand's election system favors pro-army parties”, in Birsel, Robert, editor, Reuters‎, Reuters, retrieved 2019-03-23

     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.

2. (transitive) To leave (property) in a will.
3. (intransitive, archaic) To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.
   • Alexander Pope

     I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer.

4. (transitive, archaic) To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.
   • Spenser

     For wisdom is most riches; fools therefore / They are which fortunes do by vows devise.

5. (obsolete) To imagine; to guess.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

devise (plural devises)

1. The act of leaving real property in a will.
2. Such a will, or a clause in such a will.
   • Bancroft

     Fines upon devises were still exacted.

3. The real property left in such a will.
4. Design, devising.
   • 2010, Carl Anderson, Fragments of a Scattered Brain →ISBN, page 83

     I don't know how I got to be so sour on life, but I'm constantly in solitary confinement of my own devise, […]

• device
• devising

• sieved, viséed

devise c (singular definite devisen, plural indefinite deviser)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

• “devise” in Den Danske Ordbog

From deviser.

• IPA^(key): /də.viz/

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devise f (plural devises)

1. currency
2. (heraldry) motto

devise

1. inflection of deviser:
   1. first-person and third-person singular present indicative
   2. first-person and third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

• “devise” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• dévies, évides, évidés, vidées

devise

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of devisar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of devisar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of devisar.
4. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of devisar.