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• v  make or work out a plan for; devise
  They contrived to murder their boss
• v  come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort
• v  put or send forth
• s  showing effects of planning or manipulation
  a novel with a contrived ending
• s  artificially formal
  contrived coyness

• But for the contrived ending, it would have been a good novel.
• But even savvy viewers who realize that their favorite reality shows are cast, contrived and edited to be dramatic may have no idea how brazen the fudging can be.
• Thousands of songs, even well-known songs, make the few rhymes for "love" sound contrived.

• plan
• project
• contrive
• design
• invent
• devise
• excogitate
• formulate
• forge
• cast
• throw
• artificial
• hokey
• stilted

News & Articles

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• Lawmaker accuses Google of highly contrived efforts to dodge taxes
  LONDON — An influential committee of British lawmakers accused search giant Google of dodging its taxes on Thursday, issuing a scathing report that said the U.S. Internet company took on highly contrived arrangements serving no purpose other than to avoid paying its fair share.
  June 13, 2013 - Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
• MPs' report criticises Google's tax affairs
  By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters) - MPs described Google's tax affairs as "contrived" in a report released on Thursday and called on the UK tax authority to vigorously investigate whether the company was acting within the law. The parliamentary investigation was prompted by a Reuters report, which showed the company employed staff in sales roles in London, even though it had told MPs in November ...
  June 13, 2013 - Reuters via Yahoo! News
• U.K. Lawmakers Slam Google Over ‘Contrived’ Tax Strategy
  U.K. lawmakers attacked Google Inc. (GOOG) for defending a “highly contrived” strategy of booking advertising sales through Ireland to reduce its tax liability in Britain.
  June 12, 2013 - Bloomberg

Quotes

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• John Adams in Washington Post
  In a year with the injustice of Jena Six, nooses hung around the country and the Tiger Woods-Golfweek scandal, Major League Baseball's false impersonations of friendships and ill-contrived questions further press sensitive racial stereotypes, with... Jesse Jackson http://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Jackson&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNFZ7IHGe-2JmcZPWjBdYpA-lkzMiA USA Today http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2008-01-30-579282892_x.htm&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNFHRA8V-YPJTD_TCyZjV6AIvg-vJQ Jan 30, 2008 21958 29488 contrived John Adams, America's first vice president, complained: My country in its wisdom has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."
• Patrick Leahy in Advertiser Adelaide
  It is obvious that the reasons given for the firings of these prosecutors were contrived as part of a cover-up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same effort,said Senate Judiciary Committee chairman...