contrivance vs steal

contrivance

noun
  • Something overly artful or artificial. 

  • A means, such as an elaborate plan or strategy, to accomplish a certain objective. 

  • A (mechanical) device to perform a certain task. 

steal

noun
  • A piece of merchandise available at a very low, attractive price. 

  • A stolen base. 

  • Scoring in an end without the hammer. 

  • A policy in database systems that a database follows which allows a transaction to be written on nonvolatile storage before its commit occurs. 

  • A situation in which a defensive player actively takes possession of the ball or puck from the opponent's team. 

  • The act of stealing. 

verb
  • To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else. 

  • To borrow for a short moment. 

  • To dispossess 

  • To convey (something) clandestinely. 

  • To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement. 

  • To acquire at a low price. 

  • To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely. 

  • To advance safely to (another base) during the delivery of a pitch, without the aid of a hit, walk, passed ball, wild pitch, or defensive indifference. 

  • To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show. 

  • To move silently or secretly. 

  • take, plagiarize, tell on a joke, use a well-worded expression in one's own parlance or writing 

  • To get or effect surreptitiously or artfully. 

How often have the words contrivance and steal occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )