connivance

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   secret or tacit approval of wrongdoing, especially by deliberately ignoring it

   The fraud continued for years with the connivance of senior officials.

2. 2
   noun

   secret cooperation in a dishonest or unlawful plan

   The prisoners escaped through the connivance of a corrupt guard.

An early-18th-century replacement for connivence, from Latin conniventia, from connivere ("to close the eyes, wink"). The image of knowingly shutting one's eyes to misconduct produced the modern sense of tacit permission and then secret cooperation.

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