scheme

views updated May 17 2018

scheme / skēm/ • n. a large-scale systematic plan or arrangement for attaining some particular object or putting a particular idea into effect: a clever marketing scheme. ∎  a secret or underhanded plan; a plot: police uncovered a scheme to steal paintings worth more than $250,000. ∎  a particular ordered system or arrangement: a classical rhyme scheme.• v. [intr.] make plans, esp. in a devious way or with intent to do something illegal or wrong: he schemed to bring about the collapse of the government. PHRASES: the scheme of things a supposed or apparent overall system, within which everything has a place and in relation to which individual details are ultimately to be assessed: in the overall scheme of things, we didn't do badly.ORIGIN: mid 16th cent. (denoting a figure of speech): from Latin schema, from Greek. An early sense was ‘diagram of the position of celestial objects,’ giving rise to ‘diagram, outline.’

scheme

views updated Jun 11 2018

scheme †figure of rhetoric XVI; †diagram; analytical or tabular statement; plan, design XVII. — L. schēma — Gr. schêma form, figure.
Hence vb. XVIII. So schematic XVIII. — modL. schēmaticus, f. schēma-, schēmat-, schematism XVII.

SCHEME

views updated May 18 2018

SCHEME A dialect of LISP, used particularly in teaching computer science.