CONTRIVED in a Sentence

Learn CONTRIVED from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For CONTRIVED, below is one of 124 sentences:
And so, by dint of alternate coaxing and commanding, he contrived to get them all once more enclosed in their separate dormitories.

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 Meanings and Examples of CONTRIVED
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
contrived
 a.  forced; artificially formal; obviously planned or calculated; not natural
Classic Sentence: (118 in 8 pages)
1  Fearful, however, of losing this first and only opportunity of relieving my grief by imparting it, I, after a disturbed pause, contrived to frame a meagre, though, as far as it went, true response.
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER III
2  I generally contrived to reserve a moiety of this bounteous repast for myself; but the remainder I was invariably obliged to part with.
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER VII
3  And so, by dint of alternate coaxing and commanding, he contrived to get them all once more enclosed in their separate dormitories.
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XX
4  Without one overt act of hostility, one upbraiding word, he contrived to impress me momently with the conviction that I was put beyond the pale of his favour.
Jane Eyre By Charlotte Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXV
5  Elizabeth then contrived to sit by her aunt.
Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 27
6  Mrs. Bennet, through the assistance of servants, contrived to have the earliest tidings of it, that the period of anxiety and fretfulness on her side might be as long as it could.
Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 53
7  By his knack of sermonising and pious discoursing, he contrived to make a great impression on Mr. Earnshaw; and the more feeble the master became, the more influence he gained.
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER V
8  It is strong enough to make me feel pretty certain that he would not chase me over England, supposing I contrived a clear escape; and therefore I must get quite away.
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVII
9  But the queen had before contrived another project.
Gulliver's Travels 1 By Jonathan Swift
Context  Highlight   In PART 2: CHAPTER V.
10  This work was repeated three or four times, and at every turn, the engine was so contrived, that the words shifted into new places, as the square bits of wood moved upside down.
Gulliver's Travels 2 By Jonathan Swift
Context  Highlight   In PART 3: CHAPTER V.
11  Their buildings, although very rude and simple, are not inconvenient, but well contrived to defend them from all injuries of cold and heat.
Gulliver's Travels 2 By Jonathan Swift
Context  Highlight   In PART 4: CHAPTER IX.
12  However, not a single magnate had been neglected, and in conversation with his hosts he had contrived to flatter each separate one.
Dead Souls By Nikolai Gogol
Context  Highlight   In PART 1: CHAPTER I
13  No matter what the conversation chanced to be about, he always contrived to maintain his part in the same.
Dead Souls By Nikolai Gogol
Context  Highlight   In PART 1: CHAPTER I
14  Entering a large, dark hall which reeked like a tomb, he passed into an equally dark parlour that was lighted only by such rays as contrived to filter through a crack under the door.
Dead Souls By Nikolai Gogol
Context  Highlight   In PART 1: CHAPTER VI
15  Yet all the while he contrived to remain clean and neat, to preserve a cheerful expression of countenance, and even to cultivate a certain elegance of movement.
Dead Souls By Nikolai Gogol
Context  Highlight   In PART 1: CHAPTER XI
Example Sentence:
1  That kind of contrived writing is usually done when someone is weaseling or lying.
2  They contrived a mask against poison gas.
3  Can you contrive to escape here early?
4  They are discussing a belief that the universe is a mechanical contrivance.
5  But a single touch of contrivance spoils it all. Any time we feel the authors creating coincidence or engineering emotion, making melodrama rather than musical drama.
6  They wear simple clothes and shun modern contrivances.