v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Invented; p. pr. & vb. n. Inventing. ] [ L. inventus, p. p. of invenire to come upon, to find, invent; pref. in- in + venire to come, akin to E. come: cf. F. inventer. See Come. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To come or light upon; to meet; to find. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

And vowed never to return again,
Till him alive or dead she did invent. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thus first Necessity invented stools. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whate'er his cruel malice could invent. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who invents. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Full of invention. J. Gifford. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being invented. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Quality of being inventible. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. inventio: cf. F. invention. See Invent. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

As the search of it [ truth ] is the duty, so the invention will be the happiness of man. Tatham. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

We entered by the drawbridge, which has an invention to let one fall if not premonished. Evelyn. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Thought; idea. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood. [ 1913 Webster ]

Filling their hearers
With strange invention. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The faculty of inventing; imaginative faculty; skill or ingenuity in contriving anything new; as, a man of invention. [ 1913 Webster ]

They lay no less than a want of invention to his charge; a capital crime, . . . for a poet is a maker. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Fine Arts, Rhet., etc.) 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Invention of the cross (Eccl.), a festival celebrated May 3d, in honor of the finding of our Savior's cross by St. Helena. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Inventive. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. inventif. ] Able and apt to invent; quick at contrivance; ready at expedients; as, an inventive head or genius. Dryden. -- In*vent"ive*ly, adv. -- In*vent"ive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L.: cf. F. inventeur. ] One who invents or finds out something new; a contriver; especially, one who invents mechanical devices, new drugs, new processes, or other useful objects or procedures. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

a. Of or pertaining to an inventory. -- In`ven*to"ri*al*ly, adv. Shak. [1913 Webster]