devisedst

English

Verb

devisedst

1. (archaic) second-person singular simple past indicative of devise
   • 1744, Lingua: or, The Combat of the Tongue and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Comedy., page 62:

     I ſay guns were found out for the quick diſpatch of mortality, and when thou ſaweſt men grow wiſe, and beget ſo fair a child as peace, of ſo foul and deformed a mother as war, leſt there ſhould be no murder, thou deviſedſt poiſon.

   • 1787, [Nicholson], “Letter IX. Osman, Commander of the Faithful, to Hamet, Grand Vizier.”, in Orlando and Seraphina: A Turkish Story, volume I, London: […] William Lane, […], page 31:

     The means thou deviſedſt to effect this were worthy thyſelf.

   • 1820, a Lover of Truth, A Prayer, Edinburgh: […] the Author, page 7:

     But glory to God in the highest, thanks, eternal thanks to thy holy name, that thou in thy infinite goodness and wisdom devisedst a scheme and contrivedst a plan infinitely glorious and surpassing the imagination, the comprehension, and the conception of the highest archangel; […]

   • 1820, S[olomon] Piggott, Guide to the Family Altar; or, A Series of Prayers for Families and Schools, […], London: […] Simpkin and Marshal, […], page 7:

     We bless Thee, gracious Father, that thou didst, in compassion, view our ruined state, and devisedst the plan of our salvation.

   • 1824, John Strype, editor, Annals of the Reformation and Establishment of Religion, and Other Various Occurrences in the Church of England, During Queen Elizabeth’s Happy Reign: Together with an Appendix of Original Papers of State, Records, and Letters, volume III, part II, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, page 224:

     At length thou grewest into such perfect hatred against me, that thou devisedst, by what means thou couldest, to work my confusion.

   • 1826, D. Spillan, transl., The Orestes and Phoènissaè. Of Euripides; Correctly Printed from the Text of Porson: With a Literal Translation and Explanatory Notes., Dublin: […] P. Byrne, […], page 73:

     For thou first devisedst ruin against Ægisthus, and wert present beside me in my dangers, and now again thou givest me vengeance on my enemies, and art not out of the way; but I shall give over praising thee, since even in this there is some weight to be praised immoderately.

   • 1855, Matthew Arnold, Poems, second series, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, page 42:

     If clear from plotting Balder’s death, to swim; / But deep, if thou devisedst it, to drown.

   • 1895, R[ichard] M[eux] Benson, The Final Passover: A Series of Meditations upon the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, volume II (The Upper Chamber), part I, London: Longmans, Green, & Co. and New York: […], page 53:

     Not for earth’s sake didst Thou devise anything that was to be erected on the earth, but Thou devisedst all, that by communication of Thy heavenly power Thou mightest gather up the whole creation into the unity of the House of God.

   • 1904, Arthur S[anders] Way, transl., The Odyssey of Homer in English Verse, 3rd edition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, page 321:

     “What aileth thee, O my daughter, to search into this and enquire? / Was it not thou that devisedst the thing that hath now been done, / That with vengeance for those ill-doers Odysseus should come to his own? […]”

   • 1911, Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Thomas Common, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, page 311:

     “The penitent in spirit,” said the old man, “it was him—I represented; thou thyself once devisedst this expression— / —The poet and magician who at last turneth his spirit against himself, the transformed one who freezeth to death by his bad science and conscience. And just acknowledge it: it was long, O Zarathustra, before thou discoveredst my trick and lie! Thou believedst in my distress when thou heldest my head with both thy hands,— / —I heard thee lament ‘we have loved him too little, loved him too little!’ Because I so far deceived thee, my wickedness rejoiced in me.”

   • 1946 August 10, Myron H. Broomell, “Prayer for the Age”, in The Saturday Review of Literature, volume XXIX, number 32, New York, N.Y.: The Saturday Review Associates, Inc., page 16:

     GOD, who devisedst man who then devised / The axe, the arrow, and the armored tank, / Until his hand, which once was moderate-sized, / Increased in reach beyond his moral rank— / God, who hast smiled on razor-blades and rayon / Succeeding Neolithic flints and skins, / Give man a modern basis now to pray on— / Forgive him for his Neolithic sins.