dial. and colloq. [A popular formation, app. from contrive (or its variant contreve): cf. conceive, conception; some vague association with trap may have entered in.] A contrivance, a device (with suggestion of ingenuity rather than effectiveness).
1835. York (PA) Gaz., 17 Feb., 2/2. I can’t say as how I see what’s to be the end of all their new fangled contraptions.
1847. Halliwell, Contraption, contrivance. West.
1859. Type of the Times (Ohio), 1 Feb. If the author had not attempted to supplant the [ordinary] Phonography … by his own quirks and contraptions … he would have made a very useful book.
1863. W. Barnes, Gloss. Dorset Dialect, Contraption, a contrivance.
1883. in Hampshire Gloss. (E.D.S.).
1888. in Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk.
1890. Temple Bar Mag., July, 355. Saltpetre and sulphur, and the contraptions necessary for catherine wheels and rockets.
