invent Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort
formulate; devise; contrive; excogitate; forge.
- excogitate a way to measure the speed of light
verb make up something artificial or untrue
fabricate; manufacture; cook up; make up.

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.

imperfect & past participle Invented; present participle & verbal noun Inventing

To come or light upon; to meet; to find. Obs.
And vowed never to return again, Till him alive or dead she did invent. Spenser.
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.
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.