Did you know?
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
Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Mar. 2025
From the dynastic Dupree family to the conniving social climbers bent on usurping their place at the top of the social hierarchy, the historic new daytime drama is all about its characters.
—Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 7 Mar. 2025
One of my favorite Hackman villains is the conniving country-boy crime boss Mary Ann in Michael Ritchie’s sublimely caustic satire Prime Cut (1972).
—Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, 27 Feb. 2025
On Gossip Girl, Trachtenberg played Georgina Sparks, a conniving socialite who repeatedly popped up during the show’s six-season run to wreak havoc on the other Upper East Siders.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 26 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for connive
Cite this Entry
“Connive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/connive. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
connive
verb
Legal Definition
connive
transitive verb
Latin con(n)ivere to close one's eyes, knowingly overlook something
Share