SCHEME • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Scheme

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noun

Scheme n.

1.

A combination of things connected and adjusted by design; a system. "The appearance and outward scheme of things." "Such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity." "Arguments... sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy." "The Revolution came and changed his whole scheme of life."

2.

A plan or theory something to be done; a design; a project; as, to form a scheme. "The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes."

3.

Any lineal or mathematical diagram; an outline. "To draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France."

4.

(Astrol.) A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event. "A blue silk case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity."

Synonyms: Plan; project; contrivance; purpose; device; plot. Scheme, Plan. Scheme and plan are subordinate to design; they propose modes of carrying our designs into effect. Scheme is the least definite of the two, and lies more in speculation. A plan is drawn out into details with a view to being carried into effect. As schemes are speculative, they often prove visionary; hence the opprobrious use of the words schemer and scheming. Plans, being more practical, are more frequently carried into effect. "He forms the well-concerted scheme of mischief; 'T is fixed, 't is done, and both are doomed to death." "Artists and plans relieved my solemn hours; I founded palaces, and planted bowers."

verb

Scheme v. t. (past & past part. schemed; pres. part. scheming) To make a scheme of; to plan; to design; to project; to plot. "That wickedness which schemed, and executed, his destruction."

Scheme v. i. To form a scheme or schemes.

See images of 'Scheme'

Etymology of 'Scheme'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Scheme" Quotes from Famous Books

... "Another scheme, very patriotic too, cost me an immensity: trying to make Indian cachemires in England, very beautiful they were, but they left not the tenth part of a penny in my private purse, and then my mother wanted some thousands for a new dairy; dairies ...

— Helen • Maria Edgeworth

... brother to accept Carry, providing that Mrs. George would also consent to accept her. But even this permission was accompanied by an assurance that it would not have been given had he not felt perfectly convinced that his wife would not listen for a moment to the scheme. He spoke of his wife almost with awe, when Mr. Fenwick left him to make this second attack. "She has never had nothing to say to none sich as that," said the farmer, shaking his head, as he alluded both to his wife and to his sister; "and I ain't sure as she'll be first-rate ...

— The Vicar of Bullhampton • Anthony Trollope

... means and possibility of my escape from this place: and that I may, with the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my story, it may not be improper to give some account of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how, and upon what foundation ...

— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner, Vol. 1 • Daniel Defoe

... comedy. In the first place, an unseen hand was waiting to snuff out his candle. To plan life as if it consisted in an abundance of material wealth is something of a miscalculation in a world where death is part of the scheme of things. In the second place, Jesus saw no higher purpose in the man's aim and outlook to redeem his acquisitiveness. The man was a sublimated chipmunk, gloating over bushels of pignuts. If wealth is saved to raise and educate children, or achieve ...

— The Social Principles of Jesus • Walter Rauschenbusch

... Dame Partington's effort to sweep back the incoming tide with a hair-broom promised better hopes of success; a brigade of energetic firemen would drain off Lake Superior in a much shorter space of time than Liberian colonization would remove one-third of the slave population. The scheme is in the right direction, but as insufficient to overcome the difficulty as a popgun is to breach a fortified city; the only method of effectually enabling the system of colonization to be carried out, is—in my humble opinion—by setting apart some portion of ...

— Lands of the Slave and the Free - Cuba, The United States, and Canada • Henry A. Murray

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