Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - device

(devices) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A device is an object that has been invented for a particular purpose, for example for recording or measuring something. ...an electronic device that protects your vehicle 24 hours a day. N-COUNT: usu with supp 2. A device is a method of achieving something. They claim that military spending is used as a device for managing the economy. N-COUNT 3. If you leave someone to their own devices, you leave them alone to do as they wish. Left to his own devices, Osborn is a fluent–and often original–guitarist. PHRASE: V inflects