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Connive may not seem like a term that would raise many hackles, but it certainly raised those of Wilson Follett, a usage critic who lamented that the word "was undone during the Second World War, when restless spirits felt the need of a new synonym for plotting, bribing, spying, conspiring, engineering a coup, preparing a secret attack." Follett thought connive should only mean "to wink at" or "to pretend ignorance." Those senses are closer to the Latin ancestor of the word: connive comes from the Latin verb connivēre, which means "to close the eyes" and which is descended from -nivēre, a form akin to the Latin verb nictare, meaning "to wink." But many English speakers disagreed, and the "conspire" sense is now the word's most widely used meaning.
Examples of connive in a Sentence
Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 25 Oct. 2024
Scherzinger's Desmond is charismatic, funny, sensual, intelligent, dramatic, conniving and monstrous — all at the same time.
—Dave Quinn, People.com, 21 Oct. 2024
Our central characters fall neatly into easy tropes: insecure aging starlet, conniving sexpot, and misogynistic bigwig pig.
—Abby Monteil, Them, 20 Sep. 2024
Gollum feels some guilt, finally Photo: New Line Cinema
Serkis does a fantastic job in The Two Towers bouncing back and forth between the aggressive and conniving Gollum and the needy and sniveling Smeagol as the creature grows close to Frodo but is also increasingly drawn to the One Ring.
—Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near connive
Cite this Entry
“Connive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/connive. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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connive
verb
Legal Definition
connive
transitive verb
Latin con(n)ivere to close one's eyes, knowingly overlook something
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