Pronunciations (2)
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/skiːm/
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skiːm
Noun
An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
Usage- Obsolete
- rhetoric
A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event.
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a blue case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity
A systematic plan of future action.
- Synonyms
- Examples
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The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.
Originally the opening had doubtless marked the projection of another road, but the scheme had come to nothing.
More examples (2)
There are schemes to transfer electrical energy from braking trains into local power grids, and even more radical plans for “moving platforms” that dock with high-speed trains. […] A “moving platform” scheme proposed by Priestmangoode is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays. This set-up solves several problems […].
Such [rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
A plot or secret, devious plan.
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Her brain is continually fermenting new schemes.
An orderly combination of related parts.
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the appearance and outward scheme of things
such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity
More examples (2)
arguments […] sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy
The Revolution came and changed his whole scheme of life.
A chart or diagram of a system or object.
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April 29, 1694, Robert South, A Sermon Preached at Westminster Abbey to draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France
A mathematical structure that generalizes the notion of an algebraic variety in several ways, such as taking account of multiplicities and allowing “varieties” defined over any commutative ring. Formally, a locally ringed space that admits a covering by open sets, each of which is isomorphic to an affine scheme (i.e. the spectrum of some commutative ring).
A council housing estate.
Usage- Scotland
- UK usage
- Colloquial
- Examples
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It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme.
More examples (1)
“You can’t really say to the kids in the schemes [Scottish council estates]^([sic]): don’t do drugs, they’ll wreck your life, you’ll never get a job or a house or buy nice things.”
Part of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
Usage- Internet
A portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.
Usage- UK usage
Verb
To plot, or contrive a plan; to maneuver.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
Laura snatches coins from inside a truck to make a telephone call, scrounges shoes and clothes for them at a municipal beach, schemes to get a room key so she and Howie can sleep overnight in the Starlight Motel, steals a Jeepster from a deputy sheriff who's trying to arrest them.
The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek.
To plan; to contrive; to maneuver.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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He schemed a plot. He made use of the hotel's stationery to write a letter.
Noun
an elaborate and systematic plan of action
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
a statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery
a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole
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a vast system of production and distribution and consumption keep the country going
an internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world
- Synonyms
a schematic or preliminary plan
Verb
form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner
- Broader terms
devise a system or form a scheme for
- Broader terms