Search the Dictionary

To take by wiles, stratagem, or deceit; to involve in difficulties or perplexities; to seduce by artifice; to inveigle; to allure; to entangle. The insnaring charms Of love's soft queen. Glover.

omplicated plot or scheme intended to effect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem. Busy meddlers with intrigues of state. Pomfret.

Acuteness; smartness; also, a smart trick or stratagem.[Obs.] Stanihurst.

Mean; vulgar; base; dishonorable; as, a person of low mind; a low trick or stratagem.

Management with address or artful design; adroit proceeding; stratagem.

h ni music in himself Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. Shak.

To take in a net; to capture by stratagem or wile. And now I am here, netted and in the toils. Sir W. Scott.

Any scheme, stratagem, secret design, or plan, of a complicated nature, adapted to the accomplishment of some purpose, usually a treacherous and mischievous one; a conspiracy; an intrigue; as, the Rye-house Plot. I have overheard a plot of death. Shak. O, think what anxious moments pass between The birth of plots and t…

n principles of equity or honor; hence, worldly wisdom; dexterity of management; cunning; stratagem.

Skillful or artful management; dexterity in contrivance or the use of means; art; stratagem; artifice; plot; -- usually in a bad sense. [Obs.] Bacon. He sought to have that by practice which he could not by prayer. Sir P. Sidney.

One who uses art or stratagem. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

That which is taken from another; something captured; a thing seized by force, stratagem, or superior power. I will depart my pris, or may prey, by deliberation. Chaucer. His own prize, Whom formerly he had in battle won. Spenser.

ic]. "To reave his life." Spenser. He golden apples raft of the dragon. Chaucer. By privy stratagem my life at home. Chapman. To reave the orphan of his patrimony. Shak. The heaven caught and reft him of his tongue. Tennyson.

An artifice; trick; stratagem; wile; fraund; deceit. Ruse de guerre ( Etym: [F.], a stratagem of war.

To live by shifts and stratagems. Beau & Fl.

Not given to artifice, stratagem, or duplicity; undesigning; sincere; true. Full many fine men go upon my score, as simple as I stand here, and I trust them. Marston. Must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue Byron. To be simple is to be great. Emerson.

h no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoil. Shak.

The use of stratagem or artifice.

Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.

To remove or displace by stratagem; to displace and take the place of; to supersede; as, a rival supplants another in the favor of a mistress or a prince. Suspecting that the courtier had supplanted the friend. Bp. Fell.