devize

Verb

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).
   • Near-synonyms: lay, set, design, plan, create

   Synonyms:

   lay, set, design, plan, create

2. (transitive) To leave (property) in a will.
3. (archaic, intransitive) To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.
   • I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer.1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
4. (archaic, transitive) To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.
   • For wisedome is most riches; fooles therefore / They are, which fortunes doe by vowes deuize,1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30
5. (obsolete) To imagine; to guess.
   • 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.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...

See all 9 meanings of devise