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Definition
planning an illegal or underhanded activityMuch more rarely, connive can mean to remain silent despite knowledge of an illegal or underhanded activity.
- They are conniving to get government contracts in return for campaign contributions.
conniving = planning an illegal or underhanded activity
- stop those who connive to steal state secrets
- No strange robber, no treacherous host conniving at the plunder of his guests, or stealing to their beds to kill them in their sleep, no nightly prowler, however terrible and cruel, could have awakened in her bosom half the dread which the recognition of her silent visitor inspired.Charles Dickens -- The Old Curiosity Shop
- ...he said it was a good Bible lesson; that you was to watch out for conniving women who tried to git ye drunk.Forest Carter -- Education of Little Tree
- And, with Red Dillon, a world of noisy saloons, smoky pool halls, ratty little hotels, fly-specked chili parlors, conniving bettors.Hal Borland -- When the Legends Die
- Your kindness may be meanness now, and your bleak honesty fretful and conniving.John Steinbeck -- East of Eden
- These forces sought to ignite a war between the ANC and Inkatha, and I believe many members of Inkatha connived at this as well.Nelson Mandela -- Long Walk to Freedom
- Changes had crept in, Marilla conniving at them resignedly, until it was as sweet and dainty a nest as a young girl could desire.Lucy Maud Montgomery -- Anne Of Green Gables
- Have all the plaster golems in the cheder connived to read in relays?Henry Roth -- Call It Sleep
- Thou must connive at her escape, Malvoisin, and I will transport her to some place of greater security and secrecy.Sir Walter Scott -- Ivanhoe
- Do our laws connive at them?Jane Austen -- Northanger Abbey
- It would require a lot of conniving, she said, would require a lot of things which she knew Sophie would instinctively shrink from.William Styron -- Sophie's Choice
- Sure, the gods do this year connive at us, and we may do anything extempore.William Shakespeare -- The Winter's Tale
- It was certainly not the dull, drab mess of crystal that the conniving harlot wore.Sarah J. Maas -- Throne of Glass
- It was her conniving that helped Jacob steal the blessing from his brother.Katherine Paterson -- Jacob Have I Loved
- The Empress of the West would connive for power, but the Empress of the East was good and kind and full of light.Maxine Hong Kingston -- The Woman Warrior
- A cruel, conniving thing you are, David Menlo!Henry H. Neff -- The Second Siege
- You and the north wind had connived, sent gales against that man, brewed up sea-perils for him, driven him over the salt waste to Kos Island.Homer -- The Iliad
- This is not to say that he was a conniving husband.T. H. White -- The Once and Future King
- "B'gettin' his own self a lizzard, mebbe, mebbe," he answered, but there was something conniving in his voice.Theodore Taylor -- The Cay
conniving = planning an underhanded activity
conniving = planning in an underhanded activity