scheme

plural schemes

1. obsoleterhetoricAn artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.First known use 16th–17th c.
2. astrologyA representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event.First known use 17th c.

   a blue case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity

   1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC

3. A systematic plan of future action.First known use 18th c.

   Originally the opening had doubtless marked the projection of another road, but the scheme had come to nothing.

   1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.

   c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects

   There are schemes to transfer electrical energy from braking trains into local power grids, and even more radical plans for “moving platforms” that dock with high-speed trains. […] A “moving platform” scheme proposed by Priestmangoode is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […].

   2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2023, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)

   Such [rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

   2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2023

   Synonyms: blueprint, blueprint, design, plan, plot, project, proposal

4. A plot or secret, devious plan.

   Her brain is continually fermenting new schemes.

   Synonyms: conspiracy, intrigue, machination, device

5. An orderly combination of related parts.

   the appearance and outward scheme of things

   1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity

   1706, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; at the Funeral of My. Tho. Bennett

   arguments […] sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy

   1754, Jonathan Edwards, The Freedom of the Will

   The Revolution came and changed his whole scheme of life.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

6. A chart or diagram of a system or object.

   April 29, 1694, Robert South, A Sermon Preached at Westminster Abbey to draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France

   Synonyms: plot, schematic, chart, design, diagram, map, graph, graphic

7. mathematicsA mathematical structure that generalizes the notion of an algebraic variety in several ways, such as taking account of multiplicities and allowing "varieties" defined over any commutative ring. Formally, a locally ringed space that admits a covering by open sets, each of which is isomorphic to an affine scheme (i.e. the spectrum of some commutative ring).
8. ScotlandUKcolloquialA council housing estate.First known use 20th c.

   It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme.

   2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 101

   1 more example

   “You can’t really say to the kids in the schemes [Scottish council estates]^([sic]): don’t do drugs, they’ll wreck your life, you’ll never get a job or a house or buy nice things.”

   2023 July 2, David Barnett, quoting Irvine Welsh, “‘Choose drugs?’ 30 years after he wrote Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh says life is tougher now”, in The Observer, →ISSN

   Synonyms: estate, project

9. InternetPart of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
10. UKpensionsA portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.

present singular third person schemes · participle present scheming · participle past schemed · past schemed

1. intransitiveTo plot, or contrive a plan; to maneuver.

   The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek.

   2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 28 May 2013

   1 more example

   Laura snatches coins from inside a truck to make a telephone call, scrounges shoes and clothes for them at a municipal beach, schemes to get a room key so she and Howie can sleep overnight in the Starlight Motel, steals a Jeepster from a deputy sheriff who's trying to arrest them.

   1987 November 8, Ron Hansen, “CHILDREN'S BOOKS; DISCOVERING THE OPPOSITE SEX”, in The New York Times

2. transitiveTo plan; to contrive; to maneuver.

   He schemed a plot. He made use of the hotel's stationery to write a letter.

   1908, Bohemian Magazine, volume 15, page 381

1. computer languagesA programming language, one of the two major dialects of Lisp.