▪ I. devise, v.
(dɪˈvaɪz)
Forms: 4–5 deuise-n, 5– devise; also 4 deuis, -iss, 4–5 dyuyse, 4–6 deuyse, diuise, -yse, deuice, 5 dyuise, Sc. dewice, dyuys, 5–6 deuys, dewyss(e, Sc. dewyse, 6 devize, Sc. dewyiss, diwyse.
[a. OF. devise-r to divide, etc. = Pr. and OSp. devisar, It. divisare:—late pop.L. *dīvīsāre, freq. of dividĕre to divide, which by dissimilation became devisare in Romanic. The sense-development was far advanced before the word was taken into English; OF. had the senses, ‘to divide, distribute, dispose in portions, arrange, array, dispose of, digest, order, form a plan or design, invent, contrive, express or make known one's plan or will’, whence in later use, ‘to confer, discourse, commune, talk, chat’, the last the chief sense in modern French. It. divisare has in Florio, 1611, the senses ‘to deuise, to invent; also, to deuide or part a sunder; to discource, to talke or confer together; to blazon armes; also, to surmise, to thinke, to seeme vnto’.]
† 1. trans. To divide; to separate, part; to distribute. Obs.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 187 In þre parties to fight his oste he did deuise. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 349 Þis buk..In seven partes divised es. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1389 The knyghte one þe coursere he clevede in sondyre, Clenlyche fro þe croune his corse he dyvysyde. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xvii. 79 Inde es diuised in three partys. 1483 Caxton Cato E v, A waye whyche is deuysed in thre wayes. |
† b. To separate mentally, distinguish. Obs.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 22929 (Fairf.) Wele can he deuise þe tane fra þe toþer. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 237/2 Thou hast thought in thy corage..how thou myghtest deuyse the reliques of eche. |
† 2. To arrange, set in battle array. Obs.
| c 1325 Coer de L. 3928 Kyng Richard..devysyd hys hoost in the feeld. (Cf. quot 1330 in sense 1.) |
† 3. To assign, appoint, order, direct. (absol. or trans. with simple obj. or obj. clause.) Obs.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 9510 But he were..In fonte stone and watyr baptysede As Iesu cryst haþ dyuysede. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 238 Þer pryuely in paradys his place watz devised. 1375 Barbour Bruce vii. 265 As scho deuisit, thai haue done. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 21 Chiches sowe afore as I devysed. c 1450 Merlin 58 What wilt thow that I do, for I will do euen as thow wilte devise. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 374 He him baptysyd, And to him his name dyuysid. 1548 Hall Chron. 11 For..this enterprise he devised a solempne justes to be..at Oxforde. 1597 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 927 Cum on..And do as we deuyse. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] tr. Hist. Ivstine 26 b, They were forced to deuise and let out their Citty vnto strangers. |
4. Law. To assign or give by will. Now technically used only of realty, but formerly of all kinds of property that could be disposed of by will, = bequeath.
[In med.L. dīvidĕre = testamento disponere: see Du Cange. The primary sense was literally ‘to divide or distribute one's possessions’, but the word had apparently passed into that of ‘assign or ordain by will’ before its adoption in English. Cf. quot. 1375 in sense 5 b.]
| [1347 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) I. 44 (Will of Earl Warenne) Jeo devys a Isabelle de Holland ma compaigne mon anel dor.] 1395 E.E. Wills (1882) 4, I deuyse to Thomas my sone, a bed of tapicers werk. c 1422 Hoccleve Min. Poems (1892) 219 Y to thee dyuyse Iewelles .iij⊇. a ryng brooch & a clooth. 1574 tr. Littleton's Tenures 35 b, A man may devise by his testament hys lands and tenementes. 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lxii. (1739) 126 Richard the first devised the Crown to King John. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. xix. 136 Giving up to my fathers controul the estate devised me. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 17 Persons under the age of twenty-one years are incapable of devising their lands. 1827 Jarman Powell's Devises II. 12 Lands or goods cannot be devisd to superstitious uses, within stat. 23 Hen. VIII. c. 10, by any means whatsoever. 1837 Act 7 Will. IV & 1 Vict. c. 26 §33 Any person..to whom any real or personal estate shall be devised or bequeathed. a 1845 Stephen Laws Engl. (ed. 6) I. 620 Where a man devises lands to his heir at law. 1862 Trollope Orley F. i. (ed. 4) 2 This codicil..devised a sum of two thousand pounds to a certain Miriam Elsbech. 1895 Pollock & Maitland Hist. Eng. Law II. 336 The modern convention which sets apart ‘devise’ for ‘realty’ and ‘bequeath’ for ‘personalty’. |
5. To order, appoint, or arrange the plan or design of; to plan, contrive, think out, frame, invent; a. something material, as a work of art or a mechanical contrivance. (Formerly including the notion ‘to construct, frame, fashion’; now expressing only the mental process of inventing or contriving.)
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9960 (Cott.) Suilk a hald..neuer bes wroght wijt mans wijt, For godd him-self deuised it. c 1340 Ibid. 8311 (Fairf.) Þis werk..þou salle deuise hit in þi þoȝt And þorou salamon hit sal be wroȝt. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xxii. 331 Grace deuysede A cart..to carien home peers sheues. c 1400 Rom. Rose 923 In his honde holdyng Turke bowes two, fulle wel devysed had he. 1486 Henry VII at York in Surtees Misc. (1890) 55 A convenient thing divisid wherby..schall rayne rose water. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 17 b, The moost..delicate dysshes, that can or may be deuysed for a kynge. 1548 Hall Chron. 131 b, To tel..what engynes were devised, what harneis was provided. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 9 b, This Court I thus devised mee selfe. Ibid. iv. 173 Ponds for Oysters, were first devised by Sergius Orata. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 187 More ingenious than his father in deuising warlike engines. 1784 Cowper Task i. 211 The artist whose ingenious thought Devised the Weatherhouse, that useful toy! 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xxx. 404 [An] instrument..exceeding in accuracy any hitherto devised. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola i. iii, Marble inlaying and statued niches, which Giotto had devised a hundred and fifty years before. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 62/2 The ingenuity with which he devised tools for..lock-making. |
b. something immaterial or abstract, or a product of the mind. (The chief current sense.)
| a 1300 K. Horn 930 A writ he dude deuise, Aþulf hit dude write. 1375 Barbour Bruce xx. 309 His testament deuisit he, And ordanit how his land suld be Gouernit. 14.. Lydg. Temple of Glas 927 Þi woordis so deuyse, That she on þe haue compassioun. 1530 Palsgr. 523/2, I can devyse a thing wel, but I can nat penne it. 1538 Starkey England i. i. 12 Meruelus gud lawys..deuysyd by man. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 49 The mynde of man..taketh pleasure in diuisynge or excogitatynge sume honest thynge. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. i. 246 Speake all good you can deuise of Cæsar. 1661 Bramhall Just Vind. iv. 63 Then Pope Paschalis the second had devised a new Oath for Arch-Bishops. 1791 Cowper Odyss. xiv. 600 So I..the remedy at once Devised. 1833 H. Martineau Briery Creek v. 115 Whatever occupation might have been devised for their leisure evening hours. 1862 Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. iii. 105 It is impossible to devise any sanitary measures which would do all that is required. 1870 Lubbock Orig. Civiliz. iv. (1875) 167 Having devised words for father and mother. |
c. absol. or with clause: To contrive, plan (that{ddd}, how {ddd}, etc., or to do something).
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1100 Wel clanner þen any crafte cowþe deuyse. c 1400 Rom. Rose 7362 At the last they devysed, That they wolde gone in tapinage. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 784 Dyversed wittes dyversely devyse. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 313 He..devysed to set great taxes and impositions upon the people. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. iv. 27 Deuise but how you'l vse him when he comes, And let vs two deuise to bring him thether. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 207 How suttly to detaine thee I devise. 1725 Pope Odyss. ix. 377 Thus..I thought, devis'd, and Pallas heard my prayer. 1832 Tennyson ‘Love thou thy land’ x, For Nature also, cold and warm..devising long..Matures the individual form. |
† d. To design, draw, represent by art. Obs.
| a 1400–50 Alexander 280 In þis oþir draȝt ware deuysid a dusan of bestis. c 1400 Destr. Troy 1678 Twenty pase vp pight all of pure cristall, Þat were shynyng full shene shalkes to deuyse. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. i. 31 That deare Crosse uppon your shield devizd. |
† 6. a. refl. To plan, determine, resolve. Obs.
| 1393 Gower Conf. III. 248 He all hole the cite lad Right as he wolde him self devise. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 6342 Þe seruand sees many penys Lig on the toumbe, he him deuys To stele of þaim belyue. |
† b. intr. To resolve or decide upon. Obs.
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Pref. 18 Lyke a man that had deuised upon it afore. 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man iii. (1603) 161 Devising upon a man that might see this treason punished. |
† c. with inf. To design. Obs.
| 1714 Gay Sheph. Week v. 19 Of Patient Grissel I devise to sing. |
7. trans. In a bad sense: a. To plot, scheme, lay plans to bring about (evil). arch. (Const. with simple obj. or infin.)
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 9478 To deire hym with dethe he duly deuyset, With an arow. 1513 More in Grafton Chron. II. 788 Under pretext of her dutie to Godward, she divised to disturbe this mariage. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxv. 223 These .ii. traytours deuysyd and concludyd the deth of Huon. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Sacrifice v, For thirtie pence he did my death devise. 1791 Cowper Iliad viii. 533 Devising..calamity to Troy. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 783 And knew not what they did, but sat Ignorant, devising their own daughter's death! |
b. To contrive or make up deceitfully or falsely; to feign, forge, invent. arch.
| 1513 More Rich. III, Wks. 56 Much mater was ther..deuised to the slaunder of y⊇ lord Chamberlain. 1605 Play Stucley in Simpson Sch. Shaks. (1878) 166, I cannot tell what to do. I'll devise some 'scuse. 1719 Freethinker No. 109. ¶2 The Eldest..devised a monstrous Calumny to ruin his Brother. 1820 Southey Ode St. George's Day 1 The tales which fabling monks of old Devised. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid iv. 51 Devise fair pleas for delay. |
† c. with obj. clause, or absol. To feign, pretend.
| 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 208 Incouraging them, sometimes devising that the French succours were on the way, sometimes shewing the..forces to bee greater then they were. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xxx. iv. 386 If thou shouldest devise [finxeris] and say, That wilfully thou hadst murthered thine owne mother. 1610 ― Camden's Brit. (1637) 8 He..deviseth first that this Brutus was a Consul of Rome. |
† 8. trans. (or absol.) To ‘contrive’ successfully; to achieve, accomplish, ‘manage’. Obs.
| 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 670 Hercules..Diuisede here..a dosain of wondrus. 1415 Hoccleve To Sir J. Oldcastle 511 Thee hie as faste as þat thou canst dyuyse. 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 214 [He] could not devise the makyng of some Letters, in his Crosse rowe..whereas before..he wrote both fast and faire. c 1592 Marlowe Mass. Paris i. viii, Could we devise To get those pedants from the King Navarre, That are tutors to him. |
† 9. To prepare with skill, make ready, provide, purvey. (Also absol.) Obs.
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1453 Hypsipyle, Anoon Argus his shippes gan devyse. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 87 It sufficiþ þat a man divise þe medicyn after þe complexioun mai bee. c 1500 Three Kings Sons 182 The kynge was the best diuiser that any man coude fynde: he deuised not as a pore caitif, but as a kynge. |
† 10. trans. (or absol.) To conceive, imagine; to conjecture, guess. Obs.
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1046 Also red & so ripe & rychely hwed, As any dom myȝt device of dayntyez oute. 1340 Ayenb. 73 Ine helle þou sselt yzi mo zorȝes þanne me moȝe deuisy. c 1350 Will. Palerne 2985 Makende þe most ioye þat man miȝt deuise. c 1440 Ipomydon 94 Full riche, I wot, were hyr seruice, For better myght no man devyse. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 72, I do protest I neuer iniur'd thee, But lou'd thee better then thou can'st deuise: Till thou shalt know the reason of my loue. 1754 Edwards Freed. Will ii. v. 53 If Liberty don't consist in this, what else can be devised that it should consist in. 1814 F. Burney Wanderer V. 358 Little enough devizing I should ever meet with [etc.]. |
† 11. intr. (or trans. with obj. clause.) To think, meditate, consider, deliberate. Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 4938 Ses now your seluyn..And deuys of þis dede as you dere think. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 4411 He deuysed what he suld do. c 1533 Ld. Berners Huon cxxii. 435 Thus as ye haue harde Huon deuysyd by hymselfe at the fountayne. 1548 Hall Chron. 105 Vieuyng the cite and devisyng in what place it was best assautable. 1598–9 E. Forde Parismus i. (1661) 34 Thus by devising what should be become of him she could enjoy no quiet nor content. |
† 12. trans. To consider, scan, survey, examine, look at attentively. Obs.
| c 1320 Sir Beues 3872 Þe castel ase he ȝede aboute, For to diuise þe toures stoute. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 273 He shulde ar he did any dede deuyse wel þe ende. a 1400–50 Alexander 5099 Sone as þis princes of pris þis pistyll had deuysid. c 1470 Henry Wallace iii. 101 The worthi Scottis..Dewysyt the place. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 9 Beholde vnto your prince: Consider his sadnes, his honestie deuise. |
† b. To perceive, discern, observe. Obs.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 9895 (Gött.) Baylis has þis castel thre, wid wallis thrinne, semly to se, As ȝe sal siþen here diuyse. a 1400–50 Alexander 3053 Sone as ser Dary it deuysid, and seȝis his foke faile. c 1430 Syr Gener. (Roxb.) 1148 That no man youre counsel devise. 1620 Shelton Quix. iv. vii. II. 88 We Phœbus may devise Shine thro' the rosal Gates of th' Orient bright. |
† 13. To set forth in detail, recount, describe.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 8979 (Cott.) Salamon þe wys, His dedes coth naman deuis. c 1300 K. Alis. 7377 N'is no nede heore armes to devyse. 1393 Gower Conf. I. 206 And tho began he to devise, How he the childis moder fonde. 1481 Caxton Myrr. i. iv. 16 We shal deuise to yow herafter the fourme of the world and the facyon. 1513 Douglas æneis xiii. ix. 110 Lang war to devys Thair hasty fair, thair revellyng and deray. c 1570 Pride & Lowl. (1841) 18 And foorth they went, as I shall you devise. |
† b. intr. or absol. To give an account. Obs.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 888 His beaute gretly was to preyse: But of his robe to devise I drede encombred for to be. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode i. c. (1869) 54 Ryght as grace dieu spak and diuised of these belles. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 194 Hitherto have we devised of Siam and Pegu (as they stood) before the comming of the Portugals into India. Ibid. (1603) 207 Of whose originall and fortunes..it shall not bee amisse to devise. |
† 14. To confer, commune, discourse, converse, talk. Obs. [So in mod.F.] a. refl.
| c 1477 Caxton Jason 34 b, And we shall deuise us to geder of oure auentures. c 1489 ― Blanchardyn xvi. 52 The proude pucelle..talked and deuysed her self sore harde and angerly wyth her maystres. |
† b. intr.
| c 1477 Caxton Jason 51 b, Knowyng that he was moche pensif..he deuised to him of many thinges and meruailes. 1530 Palsgr. 514/2, I devyse, I talke or fynde comunycacion. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon xx. 54 After they had dynyd and deuysed too gether a grete space. 1596 Spenser State Irel. 2 Let us..a little devise of those evils, by which that country is held in this wretched case. 1600 Holland Livy xlv. xii. 1208 He answered that he would devise with..his friends and consider what was best to be don. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World v. iii. §1 His father, and other friends, had long time deuised of this businesse. |
† c. trans. with cognate obj.
| 1538 Starkey England i. i. 25, I schal now at thys leser..some thyng wyth you, Master Lvpset, deuyse, touchyng the ordur of our cuntrey and commyn wel. |
▪ II. devise, n. Law.
(dɪˈvaɪz)
Also 6–7 device.
[a. OF. devise, devis (in same sense):—Romanic devīso, devīsa, for L. dīvīsus, and (late) dīvīsa, from ppl. stem of dīvidĕre to divide, distribute, apportion, also, in med.L., = disponere testamento, to dispose by will. In med.L., dīvīsa was in common use = dīvīsio, originally ‘division of goods by testament’, ‘whence also the testament itself is called dīvīsa [and dīvīsio]’ (Du Cange). The same word as device n., and formerly also sometimes spelt device; the eventual victory of the form devise may be partly due to the influence of the med.L. dīvīsa in wills, but is prob. more owing to the influence of the verb, and the close association of the n. with it in this special sense.]
The act of devising, apportioning, or assigning, by will; a testamentary disposition of real property; the clause in a will conveying this.
‘A gift by will of freehold land, or of such rights arising out of or connected with land as are by English law classed with it as real property, is called a devise. A gift by will of personal property is called a bequest.’ (Sir F. Pollock; Land Laws (1887) v. 126) But this distinction is modern: cf. quot. 1641, and devise v. 4.
| [1182 Henry II Will in Gervase of Cant., Notum facio quod apud Waltham..feci Divisam meam de quadam parte pecuniæ meæ.] |
| 1542–3 Act 34–5 Hen. VIII, c. 5. §9 Any suche person, that shall make any..deuise by his last will in writing. 1574 tr. Littleton's Tenures 35 b, He to whom such devise ys made after the death of the devisour, may enter in the tenementes. 1641 Termes de la Ley 114 Devise is where a man in his testament giveth or bequeatheth his goods or his lands to another after his decease. 1709 Case of Heirs at Law to G. Monke 12 The Devise in that Will, by Christopher to his Dutchess. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. ii. vii. 84 It does not extend to devises by will. 1817 W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius II. 813 The devisor wrote upon a sheet of paper a devise of land, and subscribed the paper, but did not seal it. 1841 Stephen Laws Engl. (ed. 6) I. 609 The law of testamentary disposition..as it affects estates of freehold duration and tenure; or as it is commonly expressed, the law of devises. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy Bk. Prop. Law xx. 151 A general devise or bequest..will pass any real or personal estate which you have power to appoint in any manner you think proper. 1876 Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxiii. 329 For the first time in our story, a devise of the Crown made before the actual vacancy took effect. 1895 Pollock & Maitland Hist. Eng. Law II. 332 In the year 1182..the king made, not indeed his testament, but his division or devise (divisam suam) of a certain portion of his fortune. |
| β 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 241 No man can say its his by heritage, Nor by Legacie, or Testatours deuice. 1618 Bolton Florus ii. xx. 157 The people..entring upon the whole estate, retained it..by vertue of his device, and Testament. a 1626 Bacon Max. & Uses Com. Law xiv. (1636) 58 If I devise the mannour of D..of which at that time I am not seised..this device is void. |