01 n. The act of finding out or inventing; contrivance or construction of that which has not before existed; as, the invention of logarithms; the…
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1.
The act of finding out or inventing; contrivance or construction of that which has not before existed; as, the invention of logarithms; the invention of the art of printing.“As the search of it [truth] is the duty, so the invention will be the happiness of man.” — Tatham.
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2.
That which is invented; an original contrivance or construction; a device; as, this fable was the invention of Esop; that falsehood was her own invention; she patented five inventions.“We entered by the drawbridge, which has an invention to let one fall if not premonished.” — Evelyn.
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3.
Thought; idea.
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4.
A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood.“Filling their hearers With strange invention.” — Shak.
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5.
The faculty of inventing; imaginative faculty; skill or ingenuity in contriving anything new; as, a man of invention.“They lay no less than a want of invention to his charge; a capital crime, . . . for a poet is a maker.” — Dryden.
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6.
The exercise of the imagination in selecting and treating a theme, or more commonly in contriving the arrangement of a piece, or the method of presenting its parts.(Fine Arts, Rhet., etc.)
Phrases & compounds
Invention of the cross —
a festival celebrated May 3d, in honor of the finding of our Savior's cross by St. Helena.