devise

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

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈvaɪz/

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• Rhymes: -aɪz
• Hyphenation: de‧vise

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

   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, →OCLC, page 62, lines 20–23:

     Therefore to make complaynt
     Of such mysadvysed
     Parsons and dysgysed,
     Thys boke we have devysed, […]

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     His fiery eies are fixt vpon the earth.
     As if he now deuiſ’d some Stratageme:
     Or meant to pierce Auernus darkſome vauts.
     To pull the triple headed dog from hell.

   • 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 2019 March 21, Setboonsarg, Chayut, Johnson, Kay, “Numbers game: How Thailand's election system favors pro-army parties”, in Robert Birsel, 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.
   • 1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:

     I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer.

4. (transitive, archaic) To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30:

     For wisedome is most riches; fooles therefore / They are, which fortunes doe by vowes deuize,

5. (obsolete) To imagine; to guess.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     I do protest I neuer iniur’d thee,
     But lou’d thee better then thou can’st deuise:
     Till thou shalt know the reason of my loue.

devise (plural devises)

1. The act of leaving real property in a will.
2. Such a will, or a clause in such a will.
   • 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:

     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

• Rhymes: -iːsə

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. The financial sense is a semantic loan from German Devise.

• IPA^(key): /də.viz/

• Audio

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devise f (plural devises)

1. (heraldry) motto
2. (finance) assets in foreign currency
3. (finance, by extension) currency

devise

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

• → Turkish: döviz

• “devise”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• dévies, évides, évidés, vidées

devise

1. inflection of devisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

devise

1. inflection of devisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative