devise

Formsdevises, devising, devised

Pluraldevises

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To work out a plan or design for something through careful thought.

   Engineers devised a cheaper way to filter the village's drinking water.

   The coaching staff will devise a new strategy before the playoffs begin.

   Similardesign, invent, formulate, create, develop

   Note

   Behind the planning sense lies a word for dividing. Middle English devisen came through Old French deviser from a Latin frequentative of dīvidō, the verb that gives us divide. The object is whatever the mind constructs: an argument, a machine, a system of writing, schemes, or a stratagem in Marlowe's Tamburlaine. Lay a plan comes close, but devise puts the weight on invention rather than mere arrangement.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To leave property to someone in a will.

   She devised the orchard to the local library in her final will.

   Owners can devise their land to anyone they choose, family or not.

   Similarbequeath, leave, will

   Note

   Lawyers still use this verb in wills and probate. Traditionally it applies to real property, meaning land and what stands on it, while personal property is bequeathed. Many modern probate statutes now treat the two verbs as interchangeable. The construction is devise something to someone, and the legal noun names the act itself.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of leaving real property to someone in a will.

   The devise of the lake house to charity surprised the whole family.

   Title passed by devise once the will was admitted to probate.

   Similarbequest

   Note

   The legal noun has its own history, separate from the verb. It came from Middle French devise and is a doublet of device: one source, two routes into English. In law it names the act of passing real property by will, typically in the phrase by devise (title passed by devise). It stands beside the verb for leaving property.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A will, or a clause in a will, that leaves real property to someone.

   The devise leaving the cottage to her niece was added two years before her death.

   Lawyers found two conflicting devises in the old will and prepared for litigation.

   Similarbequest

   Note

   Here the noun counts. A will, or one clause of it, can be a devise, and a will may hold several devises. Bancroft writes of "fines upon devises" still being exacted. The same word also covers the act of leaving land and the land itself, so only context tells a reader whether a document, a transfer or a property is meant.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The real property left to a beneficiary in a will.

   The devise included the family home and the orchard behind it.

   He sold the devise within a year of his uncle's death.

   Similarinheritance, bequest, legacy

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The planning or inventing of something, or the design that comes out of it.

   The puzzle box was entirely of her own devise, down to the hidden latch.

   The masque's costumes were all of the duchess's own devise.

   Similardesign, invention

   Note

   Outside the law, the noun survives mostly in one phrase: of one's own devise. Carl Anderson's Fragments of a Scattered Brain (2010) has "solitary confinement of my own devise." It sits beside of one's own devising and of one's own device, and it shares its origin with device, as noted under the legal noun. Many readers will take it for a misspelling, so use it only where the echo of design is wanted.

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