Device

Device - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

DEVICE, n. [L.]

1. That which is formed by design, or invented; scheme; artificial contrivance; stratagem; project; sometimes in a good sense; more generally in a bad sense, as artifices are usually employed for bad purposes.

In a good sense:

His device is against Babylon, to destroy it. Jer 51.

In a bad sense:

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. Job 5.

They imagined a mischievous device. Psa 212.

2. An emblem intended to represent a family, person, action or quality, with a suitable motto; used in painting, sculpture and heraldry. It consists in a metaphorical similitude between the things representing and represented, as the figure of a plow representing agriculture.

Knights-errant used to distinguish themselves by devices on their shields.

3. Invention; genius; faculty of devising; as a man of noble device.

4. A spectacle or show.

de-vis': "A scheme," "invention," "plot." In the Old Testament it stands for six Hebrew words, of which the most common is machashebheth (from chashabh, "to think," "contrive"). In the New Testament it occurs only twice, once for Greek enthumesis (Ac 17:29), and once for noema (2Co 2:11). Sometimes the word means simply that which is planned or invented, without any evil implication, as in 2Ch 2:14; Ac 17:29 (of artistic work or invention), and Ec 9:10 (in the general sense of reasoning or contriving). But more frequently it is used in an evil sense, of a wicked purpose or plot, "Let us devise devices against Jeremiah" (Jer 18:18); "For we are not ignorant of his (i.e. Satan's) devices" (2Co 2:11), etc.

D. Miall Edwards