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Invent

1. To come or light upon; to meet; to find. 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)

Synonym: to discover, contrive, devise, frame, design, fabricate, concoct, elaborate. See discover.

Origin: 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.