Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of conniving.
  • noun Law Cooperation in the commission of an illegal or wrongful act.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of conniving, tacitly permitting, or indirectly aiding; collusion by withholding condemnation or exposure; tacit or implied encouragement, especially of wrong-doing.
  • noun In the law of divorce, specifically, the corrupt consenting of a married person to that conduct in the spouse of which complaint is afterward made.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Intentional failure or forbearance to discover a fault or wrongdoing; voluntary oversight; passive consent or coöperation.
  • noun (Law) Corrupt or guilty assent to wrongdoing, not involving actual participation in, but knowledge of, and failure to prevent or oppose it.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The process of conniving.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun agreement on a secret plot
  • noun (law) tacit approval of someone's wrongdoing

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The mob burnt down shops and even outlets selling milk allegedly in connivance with the police

    Global Voices in English » Indian Elections ‘09: Where The Shoe Pinches 2009

  • It is probable that the Count was in connivance with them about all this, but anybody was surely little acquainted with me who did not know that I was too busy with my art to give any time to politics, even if I had not always felt an aversion to everything smacking of intrigue.

    Memoirs of Madame Vigée Lebrun 1903

  • It would be absurd to attribute any political meaning to the incident, or to suppose that it had any connivance from the French Government.

    Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon — Volume 02 Henry Craik 1886

  • I must here declare freely -- in order that I may not be suspected of secret connivance, which is foreign to my nature -- that M. Leroux has my full sympathy.

    What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government. 1890

  • I must here declare freely -- in order that I may not be suspected of secret connivance, which is foreign to my nature -- that M. Leroux has my full sympathy.

    What is Property? 1837

  • "How long can we be expected to give our blessings to the connivance which is obviously directed at obliterating the Zulu nation, both politically and physically from the South African map."

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1993

  • "How long can we be expected to give our blessings to the connivance which is obviously directed at obliterating the Zulu nation, both politically and physically from the South African map."

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1993

  • Mandela was convinced of security force "connivance", at least in the form of standing back and allowing violence that they could stop.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1992

  • What attracted Von Eschl's attention was the fact that it was always the same barn, which led him to believe that there was some kind of connivance going on between the count and the partisans.

    Poland Michener, James 1983

  • However, a silence was ill-timed, and though not so designed, might be deemed by some a kind of connivance; for a rising heresy seeks to carry on its work under ground without noise: it is a fire which spreads itself under cover.

    The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints January, February, March Alban Butler

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