device

Noun

1. Any piece of equipment made for a particular purpose, especially a mechanical or electrical one.
   • Near-synonyms: equipment, tool, machine
   • 1949. Geneva Convention on Road Traffic Chapter VI. Provisions Applicable to Cycles in International Traffic Every cycle shall be equipped with: … (b) an audible warning device consisting of a bell …
   • An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine. - 2013 June 1, “A better...

   Synonyms: equipment tool machine

2. A peripheral device; an item of hardware.
3. A project or scheme, often designed to deceive; a stratagem; an artifice. 1602, Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. "This is our device,/ That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us."
   • His device is against Babylon, to destroy it. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 51:11:
   • He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 5:12:
   • Their recent device of demanding benevolences. - 1827, Henry Hallam, The English Constitution, Harper:
4. An improvised explosive device, home-made bomb
   • Inflammable material is planted in my head / It's a suspect device that's left 2000 dead - 1979, Stiff Little Fingers, Suspect Device:
   • THE ARMY BOMB Disposal Team rendered safe a viable device in Cavan this afternoon. - 2014 September 3, Cliodhna Russell, “A viable device was found in Cavan today, it has now been made safe”, in The Journal:
   • The army bomb squad carried out two controlled explosions on the device. It was later found that the suspect device was a hoax and not a viable explosive. - 2014 August 3, Louise Kelly, Conor Feehan, “Suspect device...
5. A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device.
   • 1736. O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey. The Documentary History of the State of New York Chapter I, Article III: Enumeration of the Indian Tribes. The devices of these savages are the serpent, the Deer, and the Small Acorn.

   1. A technique that an author or speaker uses to evoke an emotional response in the audience; a rhetorical device.

6. Power of devising; invention; contrivance.
   • Moreover I must have instruments of mine own device, weighty, and exceeding costly - 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “King Henry IV and Sir Arnold Savage”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, page 44:
   • And she said, "We are all prisoners here, Of our own device" - 1976, The Eagles, Hotel California:
   • I want to (I must) tell a story of a revelation in my life. His name is Vernon. We have known each other for 17 years, yet we are presently separated through no device of our own making. - 1986 February 1, James E....
7. An image used in whole or in part as a trademark or service mark.
8. An image or logo denoting official or proprietary authority or provenience.
   • Prior to the issuance of the first stamps, letters accepted by postmasters for dispatch were marked "Paid" by means of pen and ink or hand stamps of various designs. … To facilitate the handling of mail matter, some...
9. Any specific class of wordplay element in a cryptic crossword.
   • These eight devices, and combinations thereof, account for nearly every kind of wordplay you will encounter in cryptic crosswords. - 2001 06, Fraser Simpson, 101 Cryptic Crosswords: From the New Yorker, Sterling...
   • Discovering these variants is much of the fun. All the devices can be combined and twisted to produce surface readings in each clue which point you in the wrong direction. - 2013 November 7, Alan Connor, Two Girls, One...
   • As with all varieties of cryptic clues, the container device can be used in conjunction with other devices, especially in more complex cryptic crosswords. - 2020 March 30, Denise Sutherland, Solving Cryptic Crosswords...
10. A spectacle or show.
    • It will be out of faſhion to weare ſwords, / Maſques, and devices welcome, I ſalute you […] - c. 1634, James Shirley (falsely attributed to John Fletcher), The Coronation:
11. Opinion; decision.