contrive

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
contrive /kənˈtrʌɪv/

▶verb

• 1 devise or plan using skill and artifice.

• 2 manage to do something foolish.

– derivatives
contrivable adjective,
contriver noun.

– origin ME: from OFr. contreuve-, stressed stem of controver ‘imagine, invent’, from med. L. contropare ‘compare’.