CONNIVE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Connive

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/kənˈaɪv/ Listen

verb

Connive v. t. To shut the eyes to; to overlook; to pretend not to see. (R. & Obs.) "Divorces were not connived only, but with eye open allowed."

Connive v. i. (past & past part. connived; pres. part. conniving)

To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink. (Obs.) "The artist is to teach them how to nod judiciously, and to connive with either eye."

To close the eyes upon a fault; to wink (at); to fail or forbear by intention to discover an act; to permit a proceeding, as if not aware of it; usually followed by at. "To connive at what it does not approve." "In many of these, the directors were heartily concurring; in most of them, they were encouraging, and sometimes commanding; in all they were conniving." "The government thought it expedient, occasionally, to connive at the violation of this rule."

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Etymology of 'Connive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Connive" Quotes from Famous Books

... knew that any one else in his position would have put this serious affair into legal hands, if only out of justice to Sherwood himself. More than once he had thought of communicating with Mr. Turnbull, but shame withheld him. It seemed improbable, too, that the solicitor would connive at keeping his friends at The Haws ignorant of what had befallen them, and with every day that passed Will felt more disposed to hide that catastrophe, if by any means that were possible. Already he had half committed himself to this deception, having written to his mother (without mention ...

— Will Warburton • George Gissing

... as we now call Radicals, of whom I know not that I can better express the illiterate and blind ignorance and vulgarity than by saying that the best informed of them have probably never heard of Lord Byron. No, no, Lord Byron may be indulgent to these jackal followers of his; he may connive at their use of his name—nay, it is not to be denied that he has given them too, too much countenance—but he never can, I should think, now that he sees not only the road but the rate they are going, continue to take a part so contrary to all his own interests ...

— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles

... influences on the side of the President became too strong, and when it became clear that the many months of laborious work and self-sacrifice which had been given in the interests of reform were to be nullified by the appointment of a creature who would connive at every breach of the law, Mr. Esselen decided to stand or fall by his subordinate, the result being a triumph ...

— The Transvaal from Within - A Private Record of Public Affairs • J. P. Fitzpatrick

... degradation we were drifting when this war began. They are the legitimate and necessary fruits of the numerous compromises by which well-meaning men have sought to avert a crisis which could only be postponed. The North has been diligently educated to connive at injustice and wink at oppression for the sake of peace, until there was good reason to fear that the public sense of right was blunted, and the public conscience seared as with a hot iron. While the South kept always clearly in view ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various

... highest degree of national sagacity; they felt, that they had themselves acquired, by force, the independence which they enjoyed; and they trusted that the British administration, through apprehensions of renewing an unpopular and disastrous war, would be induced to connive at, if not confirm, the privilege the Americans affected to claim under the very Navigation Act of Great Britain, the most beneficial effect of which they were thus artfully contriving ...

— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison

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