verb

• 1Make secret plans jointly to commit an unlawful or harmful act.

  ‘they conspired against him’

  More example sentences

  • ‘they deny conspiring to defraud the Inland Revenue’
  • ‘They didn't lose their case because everyone conspired against them.’
  • ‘This type of public affirmation of the underdog was partly why his enemies conspired against him.’
  • ‘Before he died, he believed that his doctors had conspired against him.’
  • ‘He also dismissed as unfounded the father's claim that his family had conspired against him.’
  • ‘He is forced to plead for the return of a man he conspired against, denigrated and expelled.’
  • ‘Those who are members of the Church and yet conspire against her commit a serious and brutal crime.’
  • ‘Any person who aids, abets, counsels or conspires to commit such acts is a criminal.’
  • ‘He was charged with conspiring to commit wilful murder.’
  • ‘The Brits have just charged eight men with conspiring to commit heinous terrorist acts.’
  • ‘Under that statute, anyone who conspires to commit torture - by, say, authorising it - is liable to a penalty of life imprisonment.’
  • ‘Currently, conspiracy to defraud is a common law offence that requires that two or more individuals conspire to commit a fraud against another.’
  • ‘He is being prosecuted by the US government for conspiring to commit murder and aiding terrorist organizations.’
  • ‘If the parent or guardian of the person conspires to commit such acts, they will be imprisoned for from four years to twenty years.’
  • ‘In his eyes, he did not fail; he was conspired against and was therefore entitled to compensate for his disadvantage by bending the rules.’
  • ‘The former classroom assistant denies conspiring to pervert the course of justice and two counts of assisting an offender.’
  • ‘How can one trust a system in which the government and the opposition have conspired to let an aging generation run the show?’
  • ‘How are you really able to argue that the ‘elite’ have conspired to achieve this result.’
  • ‘Are the traffic planners of this city conspiring to bring the whole place to a standstill?’
  • ‘But racing, in particular, has often suffered from people who deliberately conspire to fix results, and those cheats now know that their days are numbered.’
  • ‘This angers a cabal of evil businessmen, who somehow are profiting from the bad times, so they conspire to bring the new agency down.’

  Synonyms

  plot, hatch a plot, form a conspiracy, scheme, plan, lay plans, intrigue, collude, connive, collaborate, consort, machinate, manoeuvre, be hand in glove, work hand in glove

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  1. 1.1with infinitive (of events or circumstances) seem to be working together to bring about a particular negative result.
     ‘everything conspires to exacerbate the situation’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The circumstances conspire to make a sexual relation or a future together impossible.’
     • ‘As the scenery switches from Argentina to Chile to Colombia, events conspire to change our hero, as we know they will.’
     • ‘Occasionally events conspire to imbue these great-leader impersonators with great symbolic power.’
     • ‘Fate and circumstances often conspire to change the direction of our lives for better or worse.’
     • ‘Sarah is not merely a woman who feels like a bad mother, she is a bad mother, or least she is until circumstances conspire to jolt her into reality.’
     • ‘I can feel the distant rumble of thunder on the horizon and I'm sure that events are conspiring to ensure that I'll be well and truly wound up by the end of the week.’
     • ‘Circumstances conspired to make him national chairman from 1999 around the same time as he won a seat on Cork City Council.’
     • ‘I had planned to just play for an hour or two, but events soon conspired to keep me in Connecticut until nightfall.’
     • ‘However, the Great War seems to have conspired against his plans and that was not to be.’
     • ‘He fell upon the road as if, when he left it behind, he would be leaving behind every small part of his life that had conspired against him.’
     • ‘Thursday's severe heat and humidity conspired against this.’
     • ‘And just as it never rains but pours, so it could be said the conditions also conspired against the Minstermen.’
     • ‘Many chances were created but poor finishing and a forthright penalty appeal that was turned down conspired against them.’
     • ‘People on the doorstep were positive about us but the demographics conspired against us.’
     • ‘Changing tastes in grape variety have also conspired against the humble canned vino.’
     • ‘But, once Napoleon has returned home, he discovers that fate has conspired against him.’
     • ‘We have tried the kite numerous times more, but the fish have either ignored the bait or the wind has conspired against us to either stall the kite or send it spinning out of control.’
     • ‘The evolution of the NFL has conspired against quarterbacks selected in the first round.’
     • ‘The list of events, local and national, that have conspired against the tourist industry is shocking.’
     Synonyms

     act together, work together, combine, join, unite, ally, join forces, cooperate

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