Verb

(devis)

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

*

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.

To leave (property) in a will.

(archaic) To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.

* Alexander Pope

I thought, devised , and Pallas heard my prayer.

(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 .

(obsolete) To imagine; to guess.

(Spenser)

Verb

(en verb)

To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.

*

The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson

, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}

(obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.

(obsolete) To unfold or make visible.

* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)

The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.