To secretly agree or work together with someone to do something wrong, often by pretending not to know about it.
Third-person singular present tense of 'connive,' from Old French via Latin 'connivere.' The meaning shifted from the literal 'winking' to the figurative sense of deliberately ignoring or enabling wrongdoing.
Famous historical example: Nero 'connived' with officials to hide evidence of his crimes by deliberately looking the other way—the powerful still use this trick today in scandals worldwide.
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