plot Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal)
    game; secret plan.
    • they concocted a plot to discredit the governor
    • I saw through his little game from the start
  2. noun a small area of ground covered by specific vegetation
    patch; plot of land; plot of ground.
    • a bean plot
    • a cabbage patch
    • a briar patch
  3. noun the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.
    • the characters were well drawn but the plot was banal
  4. noun a chart or map showing the movements or progress of an object
  5. verb plan secretly, usually something illegal
    • They plotted the overthrow of the government
  6. verb make a schematic or technical drawing of that shows interactions among variables or how something is constructed
    diagram.
  7. verb make a plat of
    plat.
    • Plat the town
  8. verb devise the sequence of events in (a literary work or a play, movie, or ballet)
    • the writer is plotting a new novel

WordNet

Plot noun
Etymology
AS. plot; cf. Goth. plats a patch. Cf. Plat a piece of ground.
Definitions
  1. A small extent of ground; a plat; as, a garden plot. Shak.
  2. A plantation laid out. Obs. Sir P. Sidney.
  3. (Surv.) A plan or draught of a field, farm, estate, etc., drawn to a scale.
Plot transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Plotted ; present participle & verbal noun Plotting
Definitions
  1. To make a plot, map, pr plan, of; to mark the position of on a plan; to delineate.
    This treatise plotteth down Cornwall as it now standeth. Carew.
Plot noun
Etymology
Abbrev. from complot.
Definitions
  1. Any scheme, stratagem, secret design, or plan, of a complicated nature, adapted to the accomplishment of some purpose, usually a treacherous and mischievous one; a conspiracy; an intrigue; as, the Rye-house Plot.
    I have overheard a plot of death. Shak.
    O, think what anxious moments pass between The birth of plots and their last fatal periods! Addison.
  2. A share in such a plot or scheme; a participation in any stratagem or conspiracy. Obs.
    And when Christ saith. Who marries the divorced commits adultery, it is to be understood, if he had any plot in the divorce. Milton.
  3. Contrivance; deep reach thought; ability to plot or intrigue. Obs. "A man of much plot." Denham.
  4. A plan; a purpose. "No other plot in their religion but serve Got and save their souls." Jer. Taylor.
  5. In fiction, the story of a play, novel, romance, or poem, comprising a complication of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means.
    If the plot or intrigue must be natural, and such as springs from the subject, then the winding up of the plot must be a probable consequence of all that went before. Pope.
    Syn. -- Intrigue; stratagem; conspiracy; cabal; combination; contrivance.
Plot intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To form a scheme of mischief against another, especially against a government or those who administer it; to conspire. Shak.
    The wicked plotteth against the just. Ps. xxxvii. 12.
  2. To contrive a plan or stratagem; to scheme.
    The prince did plot to be secretly gone. Sir H. Wotton.
Plot transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To plan; to scheme; to devise; to contrive secretly. "Plotting an unprofitable crime." Dryden. "Plotting now the fall of others." Milton

Webster 1913