verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
devise a method (=invent a method)
▪ Scientists have devised a method of recycling contaminated oil.
devise/develop a technique
▪ Researchers hope to develop more accurate testing techniques.
devise/formulate/draw up a plan (=make a detailed plan, especially after considering something carefully)
▪ He devised a daring plan to steal two million dollars.
▪ The company has already drawn up plans to develop the site.
devise/work out a strategy (also formulate a strategyformal)
▪ We had to devise strategies for saving money.
think of/devise a way
▪ I have to think of a way to make some money.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
approach
▪ It would no doubt be possible to devise a more scientific approach than this.
experiment
▪ He devised an experiment to ascertain whether salivation could occur in the absence of any obvious physical cause.
▪ It then devises a set of experiments that will test each of the conjectures.
form
▪ The peg and string method of devising near biomorphic forms has been used by Naum Gabo and Armin Hofmann.
▪ In Haryana, women have devised a novel form of protest.
formula
▪ He devised a formula whereby the amount an employer can save, for every employee recruited, each year can be calculated.
means
▪ All creatures that live in the plankton have to devise means of staying afloat.
▪ My problem in Dalmellington was not so much getting a drink, but in actually devising a means of drinking it.
▪ Our architect, the appropriately named Donald Buttress, devised an ingenious means of resolving the problem.
method
▪ To guard against this mishap he devised several different methods of deceleration.
▪ Jim McWhir, working with Ray Ansell, devised an extremely efficient method for doing this.
▪ Now he had to devise a method by which workmen and supplies could shuttle back and forth across the gorge.
▪ Perhaps the best approach is to devise methods by which patients conclude for themselves that smoking is harmful and undesirable.
▪ So Galileo set out to devise a method of considerable precision.
▪ It is almost impossible to devise a method of ensuring that all the firms involved obtain an equal share of the cake.
plan
▪ Continuing this outburst she devises the plan for Duncan's murder.
▪ She says the museum in good faith tried to devise plans to reassemble the stones.
▪ Gore then devised a plan to burn down the house, destroying any forensic evidence he might have left behind.
▪ In the early 1940s, the Bureau devised the plan of considering an entire river basin as an integrated project.
▪ Governments, industrialists, colonialists, charities and individuals have all devised ambitious plans to develop it.
▪ The state devises a detailed economic plan that specifies what levels of each good will be produced from what combination of resources.
▪ Help student devise a verbal plan. 6.
▪ They needed staff to devise marketing and media plans.
policy
▪ Thus, many community mental handicap teams have devised absurdly ambitious operational policies which attempt to do all things for all persons.
▪ They must take this into account when devising their own waste-management policies.
▪ The uncontrolled increase in the number of authors might be remediable to some extent by journals devising a collective policy.
problem
▪ The problem is to devise tests that will demonstrate this.
▪ It is often amazing how the most insignificant contributor to a project can foresee the subtlest problem and devise a solution.
▪ Perhaps the major problem in devising a special classification scheme is the definition of the subject area to be covered.
▪ The problem is to devise a system that enhances financial accountability.
procedure
▪ The next step was to devise a budget allocation procedure that reflected the health needs of different areas.
▪ We need therefore to devise a screening procedure which singles out the problematic investigations.
▪ Experience in using the contract and familiarity with its provisions allowed surveyors and contractors alike to devise operating procedures which worked well.
▪ It is true also that the most recent judicial statements afford considerable latitude to the public authority in devising its own procedures.
▪ Will many schools decide to devise their own procedures for dealing with these?
program
▪ Many states are devising programs with even tougher restrictions.
▪ Sutherland had achieved canonical status in the field by devising a computer program called Sketchpad.
▪ Noyes eventually devised a two-part program.
▪ It speeds up the processing, says Dave Costlow, who devised the courier program.
programme
▪ At Level One students are given a high degree of support and supervision when devising and implementing a programme of activities.
▪ The results are used to devise an exercise programme which the individual is encouraged to follow.
▪ It is not beyond the wit of man to devise a scholarship programme based mostly on need.
scheme
▪ U.N. accountants agreed to devise a creative payment scheme to stagger their bills.
▪ Singh said that Pepper conspired with Young to devise the scheme to pass phony checks.
▪ You must take time to devise a scheme that suits your own needs.
▪ Aladdin followed them and, with his wife, devised a scheme to kill the sorcerer.
▪ Perhaps the major problem in devising a special classification scheme is the definition of the subject area to be covered.
▪ The irate king returned, and devised another scheme to doom the lucky boy.
▪ He said Labour plans to devise a comprehensive scheme of transport improvements to suit Britain's needs.
▪ Most will arrange a payment holiday, reduced payments for a specified period or devise a special scheme for you.
series
▪ They've devised a series of guidelines that will enable the beauty spot to stay both commercially viable and beautiful.
▪ Sticks and Stones, itself a collaborative project, has no script, and was devised in a series of theatre workshops.
strategy
▪ But many businesses are devising new strategies as the next millennium closes in.
▪ Researching and devising a strategy to build a smaller, smarter civil service is much, much harder work.
▪ Uppermost among them will be how they begin to devise a strategy to defeat a man who is both boxer and puncher.
▪ Rather than worrying about causing a problem, your focus should be on devising a strategy to correct one.
▪ Chelsea chairman Ken Bates has thus devised a two-pronged strategy to beat Cabra.
▪ After considerable grumbling and frustration, Roosevelt devised a different strategy for influencing the court.
structure
▪ But when he and Slater came to devise the dramatic structure of the libretto, something different resulted.
▪ Difficulty of devising a structure that will stand firm yet will not be over-heavy, he wrote.
system
▪ Hanna devised a system called limited animation and a couple of characters quite the opposite to a cat and mouse.
▪ The company also devised a system of storage bags and labels to secure even the smallest items.
▪ Lyn Wendon has devised a Pictogram system which she calls Letterland.
▪ The House of Lords stated that the employer had to devise a safe system and operate it.
▪ The problem is to devise a system that enhances financial accountability.
▪ The early 1960s were a hopeful time, and it was then that California devised its system of higher education.
▪ Apparently he had been devising procedural systems for years, but nobody used them and everybody laughed at him.
▪ Any manager who fails to devise adequate systems for job control is at best not in control and at worst out of control.
technique
▪ Smith devised a technique using eight pieces of latex rather than one overall mask, including convincing eyelids.
test
▪ The problem is to devise tests that will demonstrate this.
▪ You will find it most interesting to devise other test sets for experimental and instructional purposes.
▪ Furthermore, there were no psychologists around to devise tests of mental faculties.
▪ This became even more apparent to us when we tried to devise an intelligence test for horses.
▪ Clearly, games can be devised that are tests of far more subtle strategies and complex manoeuvres.
training
▪ In addition, a method of entry has been devised by which legal training is obtained after entry.
▪ There may then be a break of a few days while participants work to devise a training session.
▪ Would it be more useful to devise training regimes in which such attitudes could be systematically confronted?
▪ Because of this, we devised a modular training package, sufficiently adaptable to cater for the vast majority of individual circumstances.
▪ It may be possible to devise some kind of training programme for certain difficulties to achieve this effect.
way
▪ As chairman you are responsible for calling the meeting, holding it together, and devising an effective way of working.
▪ Other corporations have devised ingenious ways to test and season their executives, according to McCall et al.
▪ The classroom teacher may devise new ways of teaching which make life easier contribute as much as possible to their culture.
▪ Only after we understood the connection between smoking and disease could we begin devising ways to induce people to quit.
▪ It took many years for linguists and sociolinguists to devise ways of getting the best of both worlds.
▪ Even the strongest proponents of managed care acknowledge that they have not yet devised ways to measure their success at maintaining health.
▪ Alexander Bain, the inventor, devised a way of skimming raised metallic letters with a stylus attached to a pendulum.
▪ Finally it is a good idea to devise a way of checking what use is made of a self-access video service.
ways
▪ That approach can be devised in numerous ways to produce different results.
▪ And investors more cunning and sophisticated than the Intuit traders have devised myriad ways to dodge detection.
▪ The classroom teacher may devise new ways of teaching which make life easier contribute as much as possible to their culture.
▪ Other corporations have devised ingenious ways to test and season their executives, according to McCall et al.
▪ It took many years for linguists and sociolinguists to devise ways of getting the best of both worlds.
▪ Ingenious corporations may devise more skillful ways to give employment to nonreaders.
▪ Thus, political scientists have devised different ways of counting the number of political parties.
▪ Only after we understood the connection between smoking and disease could we begin devising ways to induce people to quit.
■ VERB
try
▪ This became even more apparent to us when we tried to devise an intelligence test for horses.
▪ She says the museum in good faith tried to devise plans to reassemble the stones.
▪ Last ten days trying to devise way to stabilize frame, he wrote.
▪ It is against these projections and insinuations that Luzhin tries to devise a defence, the failure of which has tragic consequences.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A teacher devised the game as a way of making math fun.
▪ Scientists have devised a test that shows who is most likely to get the disease.
▪ The exercise programme was devised by a leading health expert.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A residents' petition called for the venture to be shelved until a more suitable access route was devised.
▪ Balancing these extremes and devising a general rule is therefore difficult, both in the LFAs and elsewhere.
▪ His geographically-based nomenclature was however superseded by that devised only a few years later by Giovanni Riccioli, a Jesuit priest.
▪ How, then, do we make the economy grow and devise an equitable allocation of its fruits?
▪ Imaginatively, however, negative moves of this kind have to be completed by devising new pictures to replace the old ones.
▪ In addition, a method of entry has been devised by which legal training is obtained after entry.
▪ This acted as the literature focus around which seven learning tasks were devised.