(schemes, scheming, schemed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
A
scheme is a plan or arrangement involving many people which is made by a government or other organization. (
mainly BRIT; in AM, use program
)
...schemes to help combat unemployment.
...a private pension scheme...
N-COUNT: oft N to-inf, n N
2.
A scheme is someone's plan for achieving something.
...a quick money-making scheme to get us through the summer...
N-COUNT: oft N to-inf, N for -ing
3.
If you say that people are scheming, you mean that they are making secret plans in order to gain something for themselves.
Everyone's always scheming and plotting...
The bride's family were scheming to prevent a wedding...
They claimed that their opponents were scheming against them...
You're a scheming little devil, aren't you?
VERB: oft cont, V, V to-inf, V against n, V-ing [disapproval]
• scheming
...their favourite pastimes of scheming and gossiping.
N-UNCOUNT
4.
5.
When people talk about the scheme of things or the grand scheme of things , they are referring to the way that everything in the world seems to be organized.
We realize that we are infinitely small within the scheme of things.
PHRASE