Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Invention
1.
The act of finding out or inventing; contrivance or construction of that which has not before existed;
as, the
invention
of logarithms; the invention
of the art of printing.As the search of it [truth] is the duty, so the
invention
will be the happiness of man. Tatham.
We entered by the drawbridge, which has an
invention
to let one fall if not premonished. Evelyn.
3.
Thought; idea.
Shak.
4.
A fabrication to deceive; a fiction; a forgery; a falsehood.
Filling their hearers
With strange
With strange
invention
. Shakespeare
5.
The faculty of inventing; imaginative faculty; skill or ingenuity in contriving anything new;
as, a man of
. invention
They lay no less than a want of
invention
to his charge; a capital crime, . . . for a poet is a maker. Dryden.
6.
(Fine Arts, Rhet., etc.)
The exercise of the imagination in selecting and treating a theme, or more commonly in contriving the arrangement of a piece, or the method of presenting its parts.
Invention of the cross
(Eccl.)
, a festival celebrated May 3d, in honor of the finding of our Savior’s cross by St. Helena.
Webster 1828 Edition
Invention
INVEN'TION
,Noun.
1.
The action or operation of finding out something new; the contrivance of that which did not before exist; as the invention of logarithms; the invention of the art of printing; the invention of the orrery. Invention differs from discovery. Invention is applied to the contrivance and production of something that did not before exist. Discovery brings to light that which existed before, but which was not know. We are indebted to invention for the thermometer and barometer. We are indebted to discovery for the knowledge of the isles in the Pacific ocean, and for the knowledge of galvanism, and many species of earth not formerly known. This distinction is important, though not always observed.2.
That which is invented. The cotton gin is the invention of Whitney; the steam boat is the invention of Fulton. The Doric,Ionic and Corinthian orders are said to be inventions of the Greeks; the Tuscan and Composite are inventions of the Latins.3.
Forgery; fiction. Fables are the inventions of ingenious men.4.
In painting, the finding or choice of the objects which are to enter into the composition of the piece.5.
In poetry, it is applied to whatever the poet adds to the history of the subject.6.
In rhetoric, the finding and selecting of arguments to prove and illustrate the point in view.7.
The power of inventing; that skill or ingenuity which is or may be employed in contriving any thing new. Thus we say, a man of invention.8.
Discovery; the finding of things hidden or before unknown. [Less proper.]