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The artifices, intrigues, and plottings, at courts.

also malicious; malignant; brutal. Thy currish spirit Governed a wolf. Shak. Some currish plot, -- some trick. Lockhart. -- Cur"rish*ly, adv. -- Cur"rish*ness, n.

The snakebird, a water bird of the genus Plotus; -- so called because it darts out its long, snakelike neck at its prey. See Snakebird.

land of Egypt. Acts vii. 11. He with her press'd, she faint with dearth. Shak. Dearth of plot, and narrowness of imagination. Dryden.

Cause of decay. [R.] He that plots to be the only figure among ciphers, is the decay of the whole age. Bacon.

hallow or superficial; intricate; mysterious; not obvious; obscure; as, a deep subject or plot. Speculations high or deep. Milton. A question deep almost as the mystery of life. De Quincey. O Lord, . . . thy thought are very deep. Ps. xcii. 5.

To become deeper; as, the water deepens at every cast of the lead; the plot deepens. His blood-red tresses deepening in the sun. Byron.

With profound skill; with art or intricacy; as, a deeply laid plot or intrigue.

The unraveling or discovery of a plot; the catastrophe, especially of a drama or a romance.

; intention; purpose; -- often used in a bad sense for evil intention or purpose; scheme; plot. The vast design and purposTennyson. The leaders of that assembly who withstood the designs of a besotted woman. Hallam. A . . . settled design upon another man's life. Locke. How little he could guess the secret designs of t…

A plotter; a schemer; -- used in a bad sense.

or hidden; discovery; as, the detection of a thief; the detection of fraud, forgery, or a plot. Such secrets of guilt are never from detection. D. Webster.

The action of discovering; exposure to view; laying open; showing; as, the discovery of a plot.

To roam. [Obs.] In this fair plot dispacing to and fro. Spenser.

To dissuade; to frustrate; as, to dispurpose plots. [R.] A. Brewer.

rama or tale, that which is assumed as to characters, situation, etc., as a basis for the plot or story. W. E. Henley.

purate; to ripen, as a boil. (b) Fig.: To ripen, to approach the time for action; as, the plot draws to a head.

ber nine or a group of nine. The Enneads, the title given to the works of the philosopher Plotinus, published by his pupil Porphyry; -- so called because each of the six books into which it is divided contains nine chapters.

A garden plot, usually about half an acre. [Cape Colony]

The plot, story, or connected series of events, forming the subject of an epic or dramatic poem. The moral is the first business of the poet; this being formed, he contrives such a design or fable as may be most suitable to the moral. Dryden.