CONNIVE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Connive

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/kənˈaɪv/ Listen

verb

Connive v. t. To shut the eyes to; to overlook; to pretend not to see. (R. & Obs.) "Divorces were not connived only, but with eye open allowed."

Connive v. i. (past & past part. connived; pres. part. conniving)

To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink. (Obs.) "The artist is to teach them how to nod judiciously, and to connive with either eye."

To close the eyes upon a fault; to wink (at); to fail or forbear by intention to discover an act; to permit a proceeding, as if not aware of it; usually followed by at. "To connive at what it does not approve." "In many of these, the directors were heartily concurring; in most of them, they were encouraging, and sometimes commanding; in all they were conniving." "The government thought it expedient, occasionally, to connive at the violation of this rule."

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Etymology of 'Connive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Connive" Quotes from Famous Books

... the whole proceeding. That was sir Toby Mathews, the catholic chaplain. He went to the marquis and represented that, if there was to be any exercise whatever of unlawful power, the obligations of the sacred office with which he was invested would not permit him to be present or connive thereat. The marquis merrily insisted that it was a case of exorcism; that the devil was in the castle, and out he must go; that if Satan assisted in the detection of the guilty and the purging of the innocent, ...

— St. George and St. Michael • George MacDonald

... of an idea of mine of offering France a neutrality? that is, to allow her to assist both us and the Americans. I know she would assist only them: but were it not better to connive at her assisting them, without attacking us, than her doing both? A treaty with her would perhaps be followed by one with America. We are sacrificing all the essentials we can recover, for a few words; ...

— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume II • Horace Walpole

... deserting a duty, and giving so base a reason for it? His duty was to put an end to corruption in every channel of government. It cannot be done. Why? Because it would expose our affairs to malignity and enmity, and end, perhaps, to our disadvantage. Not only will he connive himself, but he advises the Company to do it. For fear of what? For fear that their service was so abandoned and corrupt, that the display of the evil would tend more to their disreputation than all their attempts to reform it would tend ...

— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... little respect him as to be unmindful of his blessings; to be unwilling for the sake of them sincerely to forgive our neighbor a single slighting word, not to mention rendering him service. We conduct ourselves as if God might be expected to connive at our ingratitude and permit us to continue in it, at the same time conferring upon us as godly and obedient children, success and happiness. More than this, we think we have the privilege and power ...

— Epistle Sermons, Vol. III - Trinity Sunday to Advent • Martin Luther

... exploits of these pugnacious heroes. At one time La Tour appears in person at Boston, to beat up recruits, as more than two hundred years after, another power attempted to raise a foreign legion, and, although the pilgrim fathers do not officially sanction the proceeding, yet they connive at it, and quote Scripture to warrant them. Close upon this follows a protest of D'Aulney, and with it the exhibition of a warrant from the French king for the arrest of La Tour. Upon this there is a meeting of the council and a treaty, offensive and ...

— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens

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