Definition of "invent"

invent

/ɪnˈvɛnt/

verb
third-person singular simple present invents, present participle inventing, simple past and past participle invented
1. To design a new process or mechanism.
  Quotations
  Accurſt be he that firſt inuented war
  c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene iv
2. To create something fictional for a particular purpose.
3. (obsolete) To come upon; to find; to discover.
  Quotations
  Far off he wonders, what them makes so glad, / If Bacchus merry fruit they did inuent [...].
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie