complot

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French complot (“crowd-, plot”).

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -ɒt
(noun) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmˌplɒt/
- Audio (Southern England) (file)
(verb) IPA^(key): /kəmˈplɒt/
- Audio (Southern England) (file)

Noun

complot (plural complots)

(archaic) A plot (involving more than one person), conspiracy
- c. 1582-1592, Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedie, Act 3, Scene 2:
  LOR. Now to confirme the complot thou hast cast
  Of all these practices, Ile spread the watch,
  Vpon precise commandement from the king
  Strongly to guard the place where Pedringano
  This night shall murder haples Serberine.
- c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
  AARON: […] / For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres,
  Acts of black night, abominable deeds,
  Complots of mischief, treason, villainies,
  Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform'd: / […]
- 1919, Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop‎, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 164:
  The young advertising agent stood against the fence in silent horror, his heart bumping heavily. His hands were clammy, his feet seemed to have grown larger and taken root. What damnable complot was this?

Verb

complot (third-person singular simple present complots, present participle complotting, simple past and past participle complotted)

(archaic, transitive, intransitive) To plot together; conspire.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
  BOLINGBROKE. […] Besides, I say and will in battle prove,
  Or here, or elsewhere to the furthest verge
  That ever was survey'd by English eye,
  That all the treasons for these eighteen years
  Complotted and contrived in this land,
  Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring.