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Artful or skillful contrivance. His [Congreve's] plots were constructed without much artifice. Craik.

To try; to attempt; to apply. [Obs. or Archaic] To-night let us assay our plot. Shak. Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed. Milton.

To foment or prepare, as by brewing; to contrive; to plot; to concoct; to hatch; as, to brew mischief. Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver! Milton.

n a close design; in intrigue. By cursed cabals of women. Dryden. Syn. - Junto; intrigue; plot; combination; conspiracy. -- Cabal, Combination, Faction. An association for some purpose considered to be bad is the idea common to these terms. A combination is an organized union of individuals for mutual support, in urgi…

Contrivance; plot, design. [Obs.] Chaucer. A cast of the eye, a slight squint or strabismus. -- Renal cast (Med.), microscopic bodies found in the urine of persons affected with disease of the kidneys; -- so called because they are formed of matter deposited in, and preserving the outline of, the renal tubes. -- The…

sociate together in a clannish way; to act with others secretly to gain a desired end; to plot; -- used with together.

k or confer secretly and confidentially; to converse, especially with evil intentions; to plot mischief. [Archaic or Colloq.] Pray go in; and, sister, salve the matter, Collogue with her again, and all shall be well. Greene. He had been colloguing with my wife. Thackeray.

ef. -- To come to a head. (a) To suppurate, as a boil. (b) To mature; to culminate; as a plot. -- To come to one's self, to recover one's senses. -- To come to pass, to happen; to fall out. -- To come to the scratch. (a) (Prize Fighting) To step up to the scratch or mark made in the ring to be toed by the combatant…

vents or accidents of life; a play in which mirth predominates and the termination of the plot is happy; -- opposed to tragedy. With all the vivacity if comedy. Macaulay. Are come to play a pleasant comedy. Shak.

To purpose; to intend; to imagine; to plot. Compassing and imagining the death of the king are synonymous terms; compassing signifying the purpose or design of the mind or will, and not, as in common speech, the carrying such design to effect. Blackstone.

To digest in the mind; to devise; to make up; to contrive; to plan; to plot. He was a man of a feeble stomach, unable to concoct any great fortune. Hayward.

Plot; action; construction; manner of development. The book of Job, in conduct and diction. Macaulay. Conduct money (Naut.), a portion of a seaman's wages retained till the end of his engagement, and paid over only if his conduct has been satisfactory.

e; as agreement, between two or more persons, to commit a crime in concert, as treason; a plot. When shapen was all his conspiracy From point to point. Chaucer. They made a conspiracy against [Amaziah]. 2 Kings xiv. 19. I had forgot that foul conspiracy Of the beast Caliban and his confederates. Shak.…

Engaging in a plot to commit a crime; conspiring. [Obs.] Shak.

One who engages in a conspiracy; a plotter. 2 Sam. xv. 31.

reement, to do some act, as to commit treason or a crime, or to do some unlawful deed; to plot together. They conspired against [Joseph] to slay him. Gen. xxxvii. 18. You have conspired against our royal person, Joined with an enemy proclaimed. Shak.

To make devices; to form designs; to plan; to scheme; to plot. The Fates with traitors do contrive. Shak. Thou hast contrived against th very life Of the defendant. Shak.

In Great Britain and Ireland, a person who hires a small cottage, with or without a plot of land. Cottiers commonly aid in the work of the landlord's farm. [Written also cottar and cotter.]

A stratagem or plot by which another sratagem or project is defeated. Thinking himself contemned, knowing no countermine against contempt but terror. Sir P. Sidney.

f procedure; manner or way of conducting; conduct; behavior. My lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the action. Shak. By perseverance in the course prescribed. Wodsworth. You hold your course without remorse. Tennyson.