Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CON-TRIV'ANCE, n. [See Contrive.]

1. The act of inventing, devising or planning. There is no work impossible to these contrivances. – Wilkins.
2. The thing invented or planned; a scheme; plan; disposition of parts or causes by design. Our bodies are made according to the most orderly contrivance. – Glanville.
3. Artifice; plot; scheme; as, he has managed his contrivance well.