Sample sentences for CONNIVING

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Definition

planning an illegal or underhanded activity

Much 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

(editor's note: The suffix "-ive" converts a word into an adjective; though over time, what was originally an adjective often comes to be used as a noun. The adjective pattern means tending to and is seen in words like attractive, impressive, and supportive. Examples of the noun include narrative, alternative, and detective.)

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
Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him... if I connived at something like this, frankly I couldn't meet his eye, and the day I can't do that I'll know I've lost him.
Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

connived = planned (an underhanded activity)

...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

conniving = planning an underhanded activity

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

conniving = planning in an underhanded activity

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

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