scheme

1 a clever often underhanded means to achieve an end an e-mail scheme to trick unwary Internet users into disclosing passwords and financial information Synonyms artifice, device, dodge, fetch, flimflam, gambit, gimmick, jig, juggle, knack, play, ploy, trick, shenanigan, sleight, stratagem, wileRelated Words bluff, end run, feint; cheating, chicanery, cozenage, craft, crookery, cunning, deception, dupery, duplicity, fakery, jugglery, legerdemain, skulduggery (or skullduggery), subterfuge, swindling, trickery; fraud, gaff, hoax, sham, swindle; blind, front, smoke screen

2 a secret plan for accomplishing evil or unlawful ends a scheme to kidnap the president's daughter Synonyms conspiracy, design, intrigue, machination, plotRelated Words counterconspiracy, counterplot; frame-up; manipulation, subterfuge, trickery; artifice, contrivance, cover-up, dodge, draft, maneuver, stratagem, trick; cabal, confederacy, ring; game, gimmick, racket; ground plan, program, strategy, system; collusion, complicity, connivance, conniving, conspiration

3 a method worked out in advance for achieving some objective a scheme to upgrade the city's mass transit system Synonyms arrangement, blueprint, design, game, game plan, ground plan, master plan, program, project, road map, plan, strategy, systemRelated Words collusion, conspiracy, plot; contrivance, device, gambit, maneuver, ruse, stratagem, subterfuge, trick; counterplan, counterstrategy; means, tactic, technique, way; procedure, protocol; conception, idea, projet, proposal, specific(s), specification(s); aim, intent, intention, purpose; diagram, formula, layout, map, pattern, platform, policy, recipe, setup

to engage in a secret plan to accomplish evil or unlawful ends the town inspector had schemed to overlook the contractor's code violations in exchange for a substantial bribe Synonyms collude, compass, connive, conspire, contrive, intrigue, machinate, put up, plotRelated Words counterplot; brew, concoct, cook (up), devise, hatch; engineer, jockey, maneuver, manipulate; design, frame, lay out, map, plan, shape