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Webster 1913 Edition

Invent

In-vent′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Invented
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Inventing
.]
[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
.]
1.
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.
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.
Syn. – To discover; contrive; devise; frame; design; fabricate; concoct; elaborate. See
Discover
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Invent

INVENT'

,
Verb.
T.
[L. invenio, inventum; in and venio, to come; literally, to come to, to fall on, to meet, Eng. to find.]
1.
To find out something new; to devise something not before known; to contrive and produce something that did not before exist; as, to invent a new instrument of music; to invent a machine for spinning; to invent gunpowder. [See Invention.]
2.
To forge; to fabricate; to contrive falsely; as, to invent falsehoods.
3.
To feign; to frame by the imagination; as, to invent the machinery of a poem.
4.
To light on; to meet with. [This is the literal sense, but not now used.]

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