The word for today is…

connive (verb):

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : Connive may not seem like a term that would raise many hackles, but it certainly raised those of Wilson Follett, a usage critic who lamented that the word “was undone during the Second World War, when restless spirits felt the need of a new synonym for plotting, bribing, spying, conspiring, engineering a coup, preparing a secret attack.” Follett thought connive should only mean “to wink at” or “to pretend ignorance.” Those senses are closer to the Latin ancestor of the word: connive comes from the Latin verb connivere, which means “to close the eyes” and which is descended from -nivere, a form akin to the Latin verb nictare, meaning “to wink.” But many English speakers disagreed, and the “conspire” sense is now the word’s most widely used meaning.

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David is a retired surgeon originally from London who came to New Zealand twenty-seven years ago after being delayed in Singapore for thirteen years on leaving the UK. He was coerced into studying Latin...