CONSPIRE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does conspire mean? 

• CONSPIRE (verb)
  The verb CONSPIRE has 2 senses:

1. engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together

2. act in unison or agreement and in secret towards a deceitful or illegal purpose

  Familiarity information: CONSPIRE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSPIRE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they conspire    ... he / she / it conspires   
Past simple: conspired   
Past participle: conspired   
-ing form: conspiring   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

cabal; complot; conjure; conspire; machinate

Context example:

They conspired to overthrow the government

Hypernyms (to "conspire" is one way to...):

plot (plan secretly, usually something illegal)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "conspire"):

coconspire (conspire together)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

They conspire to move

Derivation:

conspiracy (a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot))

conspirative (relating to or characteristic of conspiracy or conspirators)

conspirator (a member of a conspiracy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Act in unison or agreement and in secret towards a deceitful or illegal purpose

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

collude; conspire

Context example:

The two companies conspired to cause the value of the stock to fall

Hypernyms (to "conspire" is one way to...):

interact (act together or towards others or with others)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Derivation:

conspiracy (a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act)

conspirative (relating to or characteristic of conspiracy or conspirators)

 Context examples 

The higher moisture content of warmer air and storms' increasing wind speeds conspire to produce wetter storms.

(Why are big storms bringing so much more rain?, National Science Foundation)

Delaford,—that place in which so much conspired to give her an interest; which she wished to be acquainted with, and yet desired to avoid.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Under the latter heading is included, no doubt, not only those who may have taken him away, but also those who conspire to keep him in his present position?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A subtype of delusional disorder characterized by the central delusional theme that the individual is being malevolently treated (for example, maligned, harassed, conspired against, poisoned or drugged) by another person or group.

(Persecutory Type Delusional Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

He said the twin effects of plant physiology in the U.S. Southeast and precipitation anomalies caused by atmospheric warming farther north in the Mississippi basin are conspiring to juice up the future flood statistics in equal proportion.

(Plant physiology will be major contributor to future river flooding, National Science Foundation)

The reader may remember what I related, when my crew conspired against me, and confined me to my cabin; how I continued there several weeks without knowing what course we took; and when I was put ashore in the long-boat, how the sailors told me, with oaths, whether true or false, that they knew not in what part of the world we were.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I do not know whether he was seized with compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited upon the injured man.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They weren't happy, and neither of them had touched the chicken or the ale—and yet they weren't unhappy either. There was an unmistakable air of natural intimacy about the picture and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)