plotting

Pluralplottings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of devising secret schemes, especially to gain power or advantage over others.

   The boardroom was thick with plotting as executives jockeyed for control of the company.

   Their patient plotting eventually toppled the regime.

   Similarscheming, intrigue, machination, conspiracy

   Note

   As a mass noun it names a whole climate of intrigue rather than one scheme, as in the boardroom thick with plotting. It can also be counted, and the plural plottings suits a run of separate intrigues, such as the plottings of rival factions. For a single scheme, plot is the ordinary word. Machination, its closest synonym, is the more formal choice.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of plot.

   The rebels are plotting a coup against the government.

   She spent the evening plotting points on the graph.

   Note

   One spelling serves two very different activities, the schemer's and the chart-maker's. In the scheming sense the verb works with or without an object: rebels plotting a coup, or simply plotting against the government. The graphing senses always need an object, so you plot points or a graph. As a gerund it can head a clause, as in "plotting the data took hours." Intrigue as a thing is the noun for scheming.

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