| designing | | |
| n. (act) | 1. design, designing | the act of working out the form of something (as by making a sketch or outline or plan).; "he contributed to the design of a new instrument" |
| ~ creating by mental acts | the act of creating something by thinking. |
| ~ planning | the act or process of drawing up plans or layouts for some project or enterprise. |
| adj. | 2. designing, scheming | concealing crafty designs for advancing your own interest.; "a selfish and designing nation obsessed with the dark schemes of European intrigue"; "a scheming wife"; "a scheming gold digger" |
| ~ artful | marked by skill in achieving a desired end especially with cunning or craft.; "the artful dodger"; "an artful choice of metaphors" |
| devise | | |
| n. (possession) | 1. devise | a will disposing of real property. |
| ~ testament, will | a legal document declaring a person's wishes regarding the disposal of their property when they die. |
| n. (possession) | 2. devise | (law) a gift of real property by will. |
| ~ law, jurisprudence | the collection of rules imposed by authority.; "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order" |
| ~ inheritance, heritage | that which is inherited; a title or property or estate that passes by law to the heir on the death of the owner. |
| ~ gift | something acquired without compensation. |
| v. (creation) | 3. contrive, devise, excogitate, forge, formulate, invent | come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or principle) after a mental effort.; "excogitate a way to measure the speed of light" |
| ~ create by mental act, create mentally | create mentally and abstractly rather than with one's hands. |
| v. (creation) | 4. devise, get up, machinate, organise, organize, prepare | arrange by systematic planning and united effort.; "machinate a plot"; "organize a strike"; "devise a plan to take over the director's office" |
| ~ initiate, pioneer | take the lead or initiative in; participate in the development of.; "This South African surgeon pioneered heart transplants" |
| ~ put on, mount | prepare and supply with the necessary equipment for execution or performance.; "mount a theater production"; "mount an attack"; "mount a play" |
| ~ lay | prepare or position for action or operation.; "lay a fire"; "lay the foundation for a new health care plan" |
| ~ set up | begin, or enable someone else to begin, a venture by providing the means, logistics, etc..; "set up an election" |
| ~ sandwich | make into a sandwich. |
| ~ spatchcock | prepare for eating if or as if a spatchcock.; "spatchcock a guinea hen" |
| ~ embattle | prepare for battle or conflict. |
| v. (possession) | 5. devise | give by will, especially real property. |
| ~ bequeath, will, leave | leave or give by will after one's death.; "My aunt bequeathed me all her jewelry"; "My grandfather left me his entire estate" |
| map out | | |
| v. (creation) | 1. map, map out | plan, delineate, or arrange in detail.; "map one's future" |
| ~ contrive, design, plan, project | make or work out a plan for; devise.; "They contrived to murder their boss"; "design a new sales strategy"; "plan an attack" |
| plot | | |
| n. (cognition) | 1. game, plot, secret plan | a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal).; "they concocted a plot to discredit the governor"; "I saw through his little game from the start" |
| ~ scheme, strategy | an elaborate and systematic plan of action. |
| ~ counterplan, counterplot | a plot intended to subvert another plot. |
| ~ intrigue, machination | a crafty and involved plot to achieve your (usually sinister) ends. |
| ~ cabal, conspiracy | a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot). |
| n. (location) | 2. patch, plot, plot of ground, plot of land | a small area of ground covered by specific vegetation.; "a bean plot"; "a cabbage patch"; "a briar patch" |
| ~ bed | a plot of ground in which plants are growing.; "the gardener planted a bed of roses" |
| ~ garden | a plot of ground where plants are cultivated. |
| ~ parcel of land, piece of ground, piece of land, tract, parcel | an extended area of land. |
| n. (communication) | 3. plot | the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc..; "the characters were well drawn but the plot was banal" |
| ~ story | a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events.; "he writes stories for the magazines" |
| ~ action | the series of events that form a plot.; "his novels always have a lot of action" |
| ~ plot line, storyline | the plot of a book or play or film. |
| n. (communication) | 4. plot | a chart or map showing the movements or progress of an object. |
| ~ chart | a visual display of information. |
| v. (cognition) | 5. plot | plan secretly, usually something illegal.; "They plotted the overthrow of the government" |
| ~ plan | make plans for something.; "He is planning a trip with his family" |
| ~ cabal, complot, conspire, machinate, conjure | engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together.; "They conspired to overthrow the government" |
| ~ counterplot | make a plot in response to another plot. |
| ~ scheme, connive, intrigue | form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner. |
| v. (creation) | 6. diagram, plot | make a schematic or technical drawing of that shows interactions among variables or how something is constructed. |
| ~ draw | represent by making a drawing of, as with a pencil, chalk, etc. on a surface.; "She drew an elephant"; "Draw me a horse" |
| ~ graph | plot upon a graph. |
| v. (cognition) | 7. plat, plot | make a plat of.; "Plat the town" |
| ~ map | make a map of; show or establish the features of details of.; "map the surface of Venus" |
| v. (creation) | 8. plot | devise the sequence of events in (a literary work or a play, movie, or ballet).; "the writer is plotting a new novel" |
| ~ contrive, design, plan, project | make or work out a plan for; devise.; "They contrived to murder their boss"; "design a new sales strategy"; "plan an attack" |
| scheme | | |
| n. (cognition) | 1. scheme, strategy | an elaborate and systematic plan of action. |
| ~ plan of action | a plan for actively doing something. |
| ~ dodge, stratagem, contrivance | an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade.; "his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track" |
| ~ counterterrorism | a strategy intended to prevent or counter terrorism. |
| ~ game plan | (sports) a plan for achieving an objective in some sport. |
| ~ game plan | (figurative) a carefully thought out strategy for achieving an objective in war or politics or business or personal affairs.; "newscasters speculated about the President's game plan for an invasion" |
| ~ house of cards, bubble | a speculative scheme that depends on unstable factors that the planner cannot control.; "his proposal was nothing but a house of cards"; "a real estate bubble" |
| ~ playbook | a scheme or set of strategies for conducting a business campaign or a political campaign.; "they borrowed a page from the playbook of the opposition" |
| ~ plot, secret plan, game | a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal).; "they concocted a plot to discredit the governor"; "I saw through his little game from the start" |
| ~ pyramid scheme | a fraudulent scheme in which people are recruited to make payments to the person who recruited them while expecting to receive payments from the persons they recruit; when the number of new recruits fails to sustain the hierarchical payment structure the scheme collapses with most of the participants losing the money they put in. |
| ~ waiting game | a strategy of delay. |
| ~ wheeze | (Briticism) a clever or amusing scheme or trick.; "a clever wheeze probably succeeded in neutralizing the German espionage threat" |
| ~ incentive program, incentive scheme | a formal scheme for inducing someone (as employees) to do something. |
| n. (communication) | 2. dodge, dodging, scheme | a statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery. |
| ~ falsehood, untruth, falsity | a false statement. |
| n. (group) | 3. scheme, system | a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole.; "a vast system of production and distribution and consumption keep the country going" |
| ~ group, grouping | any number of entities (members) considered as a unit. |
| ~ language system | a system of linguistic units or elements used in a particular language. |
| ~ judicatory, judicial system, judicature, judiciary | the system of law courts that administer justice and constitute the judicial branch of government. |
| ~ economic system, economy | the system of production and distribution and consumption. |
| ~ ecosystem | a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment. |
| ~ hierarchy | a series of ordered groupings of people or things within a system.; "put honesty first in her hierarchy of values" |
| ~ social organisation, social organization, social structure, social system, structure | the people in a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships.; "the social organization of England and America is very different"; "sociologists have studied the changing structure of the family" |
| ~ dragnet | a system of coordinated measures for apprehending (criminals or other individuals).; "caught in the police dragnet" |
| ~ machinery | a system of means and activities whereby a social institution functions.; "the complex machinery of negotiation"; "the machinery of command labored and brought forth an order" |
| ~ network, web | an interconnected system of things or people.; "he owned a network of shops"; "retirement meant dropping out of a whole network of people who had been part of my life"; "tangled in a web of cloth" |
| ~ nonlinear system | a system whose performance cannot be described by equations of the first degree. |
| ~ subsystem | a system that is part of some larger system. |
| ~ organism | a system considered analogous in structure or function to a living body.; "the social organism" |
| ~ syntax | a systematic orderly arrangement. |
| ~ body | a collection of particulars considered as a system.; "a body of law"; "a body of doctrine"; "a body of precedents" |
| ~ shebang | an entire system; used in the phrase `the whole shebang'. |
| ~ solar system | the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field. |
| ~ water system | a river and all of its tributaries. |
| ~ root system, rootage | a developed system of roots. |
| n. (cognition) | 4. schema, scheme | an internal representation of the world; an organization of concepts and actions that can be revised by new information about the world. |
| ~ internal representation, mental representation, representation | a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image. |
| n. (cognition) | 5. outline, schema, scheme | a schematic or preliminary plan. |
| ~ plan, program, programme | a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished.; "they drew up a six-step plan"; "they discussed plans for a new bond issue" |
| v. (cognition) | 6. connive, intrigue, scheme | form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner. |
| ~ plot | plan secretly, usually something illegal.; "They plotted the overthrow of the government" |
| v. (cognition) | 7. scheme | devise a system or form a scheme for. |
| ~ plan | make plans for something.; "He is planning a trip with his family" |
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