devise

Etymology

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English devisen, devysen, from Old French deviser, from Vulgar Latin devisō, from Latin dīvisō, frequentative of dīvidō.

verb

1. (transitive) To use one’s intellect to plan or design (something).
   to devise an argument; to devise a machine, or a new system of writing
   Thus, the task of the linguist devising a grammar which models the linguistic competence of the fluent native speaker is to devise a finite set of rules which are capable of specifying how to form, interpret, and pronounce an infinite set of well-formed sentences. 1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational Grammar, Cambridge: University Press, page 23
   Thailand goes to the polls on Sunday under a new system that critics say the military government has devised to prevent the most popular political party, which has won every election since 2001, from returning to power. 2019-03-21, Setboonsarg, Chayut, Johnson, Kay, “Numbers game: How Thailand's election system favors pro-army parties”, in Robert Birsel, editor, Reuters, Reuters, retrieved 2019-03-23
2. (transitive) To leave (property) in a will.
3. (intransitive, archaic) To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.
4. (transitive, archaic) To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.
5. (obsolete) To imagine; to guess.

noun

1. The act of leaving real property in a will.
2. Such a will, or a clause in such a will.
3. The real property left in such a will.
4. Design, devising.
   I don't know how I got to be so sour on life, but I'm constantly in solitary confinement of my own devise, […] 2010, Carl Anderson, Fragments of a Scattered Brain, page 83