Strive vs Contrive - What's the difference?
strive | contrive |
To try to achieve a result; to make strenuous effort; to try earnestly and persistently.
To struggle in opposition; to be in contention or dispute; to contend; to contest.
* Denham
To vie; to compete as a rival.
* Milton
To form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to plan; to scheme; to plot.
* Hawthorne
* 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice , Modern Library Edition (1995), page 154
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=10 To invent, to make devices; to form designs especially by improvisation.
To project, cast, or set forth, as in a projection of light.
As verbs the difference between strive and contrive
is that strive is to try to achieve a result; to make strenuous effort; to try earnestly and persistently while contrive is to form by an exercise of ingenuity; to devise; to plan; to scheme; to plot.As a noun strive
is (obsolete) an effort; a striving.strive
English
Verb
- He strove to excel.
- to strive against fate
- to strive for the truth
- Now private pity strove with public hate, / Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate.
- [Not] that sweet grove / Of Daphne, by Orontes and the inspired / Castalian spring, might with this paradise / Of Eden strive .
Usage notes
* This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive . See * The strong or irregular forms "strove" and "striven" are more commonly used in print than "strived".External links
* *contrive
English
Verb
(contriv)- Neither do thou imagine that I shall contrive aught against his life.
- I cannot bear the idea of two young women traveling post by themselves. It is highly improper. You must contrive to send somebody.
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.}}