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.
Syn: To discover; contrive; devise; frame; design; fabricate;
concoct; elaborate. See {Discover}.