conduce
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /kənˈdjuːs/
Verb

conduce (conduces, present participle conducing; past and past participle conduced)

  1. (intransitive, formal) To contribute or lead to a specific result.
    • 1655, Inigo Jones, Stone-Heng Restored, London: Daniel Pakeman et al., p. 96,
      […] if Mythologie, and not demonstrative reasons were to be fixt upon in matters of Architecture, the former conceptions might be some ground to frame conjectures Stoneheng sacred to Pan. But, Architecture depending upon demonstration, not fancy, the fictions of Mythologists are not further to be embraced, then as not impertinently conducing to prove reall truths.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify ), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗:
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      First, then, we warn thee not too hastily to condemn any of the incidents in this our history as impertinent and foreign to our main design, because thou dost not immediately conceive in what manner such incident may conduce to that design.
    • 1855, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, Volume 3, Chapter 13, pp. 262-263,
      He had observed, he said, with great satisfaction that many of the Scottish nobility and gentry with whom he had conferred in London were inclined to a union of the two British kingdoms. He was sensible how much such a union would conduce to the happiness of both.
    • 1971, Keith Thomas (historian), Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, p. 85:
      There was thus a strong tendency to assume that obedience to God's commandments could conduce to prosperity and safety.
    • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin 2012, p. 343:
      Anecdotes aside, many historians are skeptical that trade, as a general rule, conduces to peace.
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