1.a device that is very useful for a particular job
2.the faculty of contriving; inventive skill;
his skillful contrivance of answers to every problem
3.an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade;
his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track
4.an artificial or unnatural or obviously contrived arrangement of details or parts etc.;
the plot contained too many improbable contrivances to be believable
5.any improvised arrangement for temporary use
6.the act of devising something