different between ploy vs contrivance

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pl??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

Possibly from a shortened form of employ or deploy. Or from earlier ploye, from Middle English, borrowed from Middle French ployer (compare modern plier), from Latin plic?re.

Noun

ploy (countable and uncountable, plural ploys)

1. A tactic, strategy, or gimmick.

2. (Britain, Scotland, dialect) Sport; frolic.
3. (obsolete) Employment.

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably abbreviated from deploy.

Verb

ploy (third-person singular simple present ploys, present participle ploying, simple past and past participle ployed)

1. (military) To form a column from a line of troops on some designated subdivision.
   • 1881, Thomas Wilhelm, A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

     Troops drawn up so as to show an extended front, with slight depth, are said to be deployed; when the depth is considerable and the front comparatively small, they are said to be in ployed formation.

Antonyms

• deploy

References

ploy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• -poly, poly, poly-

Sranan Tongo

Verb

ploy

1. To flex.
2. To curve.

English

Etymology

contrive +? -ance

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?t?a?.v?ns/

Noun

contrivance (plural contrivances)

1. a (mechanical) device to perform a certain task
2. a means, such as an elaborate plan or strategy, to accomplish a certain objective
   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 266b.

     And along with each of these go their images, not the things themselves, — they too have come about by godlike contrivance.

3. something overly artful or artificial

Synonyms

• contraption

Related terms

• contrive

Translations

Further reading

• contrivance in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• contrivance in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.