What does connived mean?
"Connived" is the past tense of "connive," a formal verb with two closely related senses bound together by secrecy and wrongdoing. In its dominant sense, to have connived is to have secretly plotted or colluded with others — officials connived to rig contracts, executives connived with auditors to hide losses. In its older, subtler sense, to connive at something is to tacitly permit it, pretending not to see what is plainly occurring. Either way the word carries a heavy load of disapproval: it implies complicity, deception, and a willful blindness to wrongdoing. English borrowed it in the early seventeenth century from Latin connivere, literally "to wink at" or "close the eyes" — an origin that captures the word's essence perfectly. It remains a staple of political journalism, legal writing, and historical accounts of conspiracy, wherever hidden schemes and guilty silences need naming.
verbTo secretly allow or ignore wrongdoing, or to conspire with others toward an illicit end; past tense and past participle of 'connive'.
- To secretly cooperate or conspire with others in order to bring about an illicit or improper outcome (usually 'connive with' someone or 'connive to' do something).
- To deliberately ignore or tacitly permit wrongdoing without actively taking part (usually 'connive at' something).
"The managers connived with suppliers to inflate the invoices."
"Auditors concluded that senior officials had connived to conceal the shortfall for years."
"By quietly looking the other way, the guards effectively connived at the prisoners' escape."
Connive comes from a Latin verb meaning literally 'to wink at' — as if closing one eye to the crime happening right in front of you.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of connived
Connived derives from the Latin verb connivere, formed from com- ("together") plus a root associated with winking or closing the eyes (nutare/nicare). When English adopted it in the early seventeenth century, it first carried the literal-figurative sense of shutting one's eyes to something — hence the enduring "connive at" construction, meaning to feign ignorance of wrongdoing. The conspiratorial sense, involving active secret plotting, developed alongside it, though the two shades of meaning persist today. The same visual metaphor underlies related words such as "nictitate," to blink or wink.
Related word forms
How connived is actually used
Formal to semi-formal register, carrying strongly negative connotations of secrecy, complicity, and moral failure. Note the important preposition split: 'connive with/to' implies active collusion, while the less common 'connive at' implies passive toleration of wrongdoing. The past form 'connived' appears most often in journalistic and historical accounts of scandal and conspiracy.
Easily confused with connived
'Contrived' means artificially devised or overly deliberate, while 'connived' means secretly cooperated in or tacitly permitted wrongdoing.
'Convened' means brought together or assembled, whereas 'connived' means schemed or secretly assented to wrongdoing.