"contrivances" in the noun sense
1. appliance, contraption, contrivance, convenience, gadget, gizmo, gismo, widget
a device or control that is very useful for a particular job
2. contrivance
the faculty of contriving inventive skill
"his skillful contrivance of answers to every problem"
3. contrivance, stratagem, dodge
an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade
"his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track"
4. contrivance
an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.
"the plot contained too many improbable contrivances to be believable"
5. lash-up, contrivance
any improvised arrangement for temporary use
6. devisal, contrivance
the act of devising something
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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