In·vent v. t. [imp. & p. p. Invented; p. pr. & vb. n. Inventing.]
1. To come or light upon; to meet; to find. [Obs.]
And vowed never to return again,
Till him alive or dead she did invent. --Spenser.
2. To discover, as by study or inquiry; to find out; to devise; to contrive or produce for the first time; -- applied commonly to the discovery of some serviceable mode, instrument, or machine.
Thus first Necessity invented stools. --Cowper.
3. To frame by the imagination; to fabricate mentally; to forge; -- in a good or a bad sense; as, to invent the machinery of a poem; to invent a falsehood.
Whate'er his cruel malice could invent. --Milton.
He had invented some circumstances, and put the worst possible construction on others. --Sir W. Scott.
Syn: -- To discover; contrive; devise; frame; design; fabricate; concoct; elaborate. See Discover.
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invented
adj : formed or conceived by the imagination; "a fabricated excuse
for his absence"; "a fancied wrong"; "a fictional
character"; "used fictitious names"; "a made-up story"
[syn: fabricated, fancied, fictional, fictitious,
made-up]