scheme

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scheme

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Borrowed from Medieval Latin schēma (“figure, form”), from Ancient Greek σχῆμα (skhêma, “form, shape”), from ἔχω (ékhō, “I hold”). Doublet of schema. Compare sketch.

• IPA^(key): /skiːm/
• Rhymes: -iːm

• Audio (US):

  (file)

scheme (plural schemes)

1. (rhetoric, obsolete) An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.
2. (astrology) A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies for any moment or at a given event.
   • 1815 February 24, , Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, ; and Archibald Constable and Co., , →OCLC:

     a blue case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity

3. A systematic plan of future action.

   Synonyms: blueprint; see also Thesaurus:design

   • c. 1713, Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects:

     The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes.

   • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):

     A “moving platform” scheme 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 .

4. A plot or secret, devious plan.

   Synonyms: conspiracy, intrigue, machination

5. An orderly combination of related parts.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), , An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. , London: Eliz Holt, for Thomas Basset, , →OCLC:

     the appearance and outward scheme of things

   • 1706, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preach'd in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; at the Funeral of My. Tho. Bennett:

     such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity

   • 1754, Jonathan Edwards, The Freedom of the Will:

     arguments sufficient to support and demonstrate a whole scheme of moral philosophy

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The Revolution came and changed his whole scheme of life.

6. A chart or diagram of a system or object.

   Synonyms: plot, schematic; see also Thesaurus:diagram, Thesaurus:schematic

   • April 29, 1694, Robert South, A Sermon Preached at Westminster Abbey

     to draw an exact scheme of Constantinople, or a map of France

7. (mathematics) 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).
8. (UK, chiefly Scotland, colloquial) A council housing estate.

   Synonyms: estate, project

   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 101:

     It was all too dear. They all just put their prices up because it was out in the scheme.

   • 2023 July 2, David Barnett, quoting Irvine Welsh, “‘Choose drugs?’ 30 years after he wrote Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh says life is tougher now”, in The Observer‎, →ISSN:

     “You can’t really say to the kids in the schemes : don’t do drugs, they’ll wreck your life, you’ll never get a job or a house or buy nice things.”

9. (Internet) Part of a uniform resource identifier indicating the protocol or other purpose, such as http: or news:.
10. (UK, pensions) A portfolio of pension plans with related benefits comprising multiple independent members.

In the US, generally has devious connotations, while in the UK, frequently used as a neutral term for projects: “The road is closed due to a pavement-widening scheme.”

• → Irish: scéim
• → Malay: skim

scheme (third-person singular simple present schemes, present participle scheming, simple past and past participle schemed)

1. (intransitive) To plot, or contrive a plan; to manuever.
   • 1987 November 8, Ron Hansen, “CHILDREN'S BOOKS; DISCOVERING THE OPPOSITE SEX”, in The New York Times‎:

     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.

   • 2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

     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.

2. (transitive) To plan; to contrive; to manuever.
   • 1908, Bohemian Magazine, volume 15, page 381:

     He schemed a plot. He made use of the hotel's stationery to write a letter.

• “scheme, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2022.
• Silva Rhetoricae

• Meches

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃeːmə/

scheme

1. (reflexive) to be ashamed

   Schemst-du dich net?

   Aren't you ashamed?

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

Derived from English scheme.

scheme (plural scheme dem, quantified scheme)

1. housing scheme; council estate; a housing project; neighbourhood.
   • 2007 October, “My Scheme” (track 2), in Riddim Driven: Shadowz (2008)‎, performed by Vybz Kartel:

     Foreigners if unno neva know ask di tourist board 'bout my scheme

     Foreigners, if you don't know then ask the tourist board about my neighbourhood.

From Old Saxon skimo (“shadow”). Originally masculine.

• Stem vowel: ē¹
  • (originally) IPA^(key): /skɪəmə/

scheme m or f

1. A shadow, a shade; a darkness created by an object obstructing light
2. A shadow, a shade; something which is barely perceptible or not physical

   ...lose se van der walt der dusternisse unde van deme scheme des dodes. (" ...free them from the power of darkness and the shadow of death." )

3. A shimmer; a soft or weak occurrence of light
4. twilight; the lighting conditions at dusk and dawn
5. A face mask
6. aureola

• sceme