connive

Meanings

1. To secretly cooperate with other people in order to commit a crime or other wrongdoing; to collude, to conspire.
2. Of parts of a plant: to be converging or in close contact; to be connivent.
3. Often followed by at: to pretend to be ignorant of something in order to escape blame; to ignore or overlook a fault deliberately.
4. To open and close the eyes rapidly; to wink.

Etymology

From French conniver (“to ignore and thus become complicit in wrongdoing”), or directly from its etymon Latin con(n)īvēre (“close or screw up the eyes, blink, wink; overlook, turn a blind eye, connive”) (perhaps alluding to two persons involved in a scheme together winking to each other), from con- (prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several objects) + *nīvēre (related to nictō (“to blink, wink”), from Proto-Indo-European *kneygʷʰ- (“to bend, droop”)).