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Contrive vs Artful - What's the difference?

contrive | artful |

As a verb contrive

is to form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to plan; to scheme; to plot.

As an adjective artful is

performed with, or characterized by, art or skill.

contrive

English

Verb

(contriv)
  • To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to plan; to scheme; to plot.
  • * Hawthorne
  • Neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice , Modern Library Edition (1995), page 154
  • I cannot bear the idea of two young women traveling post by themselves. It is highly improper. You must contrive to send somebody.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=10 citation , passage=With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.}}
  • To invent, to make devices; to form designs especially by improvisation.
  • To project, cast, or set forth, as in a projection of light.
  • Synonyms

    * becast * cast about

    Derived terms

    * contriver * contrivance

    artful

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Performed with, or characterized by, art or skill.
  • Artificial; imitative.
  • Using or exhibiting much art, skill, or contrivance; dexterous; skillful.
  • Cunning; disposed to cunning indirectness of dealing; crafty; as, an artful boy. [The usual sense.]
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012
  • , date=June 29 , author=Kevin Mitchell , title=Roger Federer back from Wimbledon 2012 brink to beat Julien Benneteau , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Where the Czech upstart Rosol, ranked 100 in the world, all but blew Nadal's head off with his blunderbuss in a fifth set of unrivalled intensity on Thursday night, Benneteau, a more artful citizen, used a rapier to hurt his vaunted foe before falling just short of a kill. In the end, it was he who staggered from the scene of the fight. }}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * artful dodger * artfully * artfulness