| 释义 |
▪ I. plot, n.|plɒt|
Also 5–7 plotte, 6–7 plott.
[Appears in late OE. (see sense 2), if indeed the single instance belongs to this word, and then not till late 14th c.; in senses 3–7 not before 16th c. Origin unknown. See also the collateral form plat (plat n.3), which arose in the 16th c., and was for two centuries or more common in all senses exc. 1 and 7. Senses 3–6 are found earlier in plat. For the relations between the two, see plat n.3 As to sense 7 see the note under branch III.]
I.
†1. A small portion of any surface (e.g. of the skin, a garment) differing in character or aspect from the rest of the surface; a patch, spot, mark. Obs.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 275–6 He hadde a cote of crystendome..Ac it was moled in many places with many sondri plottes, Of pruyde here a plotte, and þere a plotte of vnboxome speche. c1440Promp. Parv. 405/1 Plecke, or plotte, porciuncula. Ibid., Plot, idem quod plek. 1583Lyly Epist. in T. Watson Centurie of Loue (Arb.) 29, I could finde nothing but..loose stringes, where I tyed hard knots: and a table of steele, where I framed a plot of wax. 1598Hakluyt Voy. I. 98 The men shaue a plot four square vpon the crownes of their heads. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 325 The horse will be..full of scabs and raw plots about the neck. 1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2143/4 A daple gray Mare,..a Plott chafed upon the side of her Cheek. 1822–34Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 490 Very minute pustules, forming circular plots of a brown, or reddish hue.
2. a. An area or piece (of small or moderate size) of ground, or of what grows or lies upon it; esp. one used for some special purpose, indicated by the context; a patch, spot. Cf. plat n.3 1.
a1100(Charm) in Liebermann Gesetze der Angels. 400 Ic aᵹnian wylle to aᵹenre æhte ðæt ðæt ic hæbbe & næfre ð[em]yntan ne plot ne ploh, ne turf ne toft, ne furh ne fotmæl, ne land ne læse. 1463in Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 461 An acre of medew in a noder plotte. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxxvi. 125 We requyre onely..a lityll plotte of grounde where we maye dwelle in peas. a1500Flower & Leaf lxxii, And why that some did reverence to the tree, And some unto the plot of floures fair? 1573Tusser Husb. (1878) 213 In Cambridge then, I found agen, a resting plot. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 3 This greene plot shall be our stage. 1598Florio Ital. Dict. Ep. Ded. 2 What pleasure in a plot of simples. 1624Middleton Game at Chess iii. i. 127 Poor countrymen have but one plot To keep a cow on. 1660Season. Exhort. 20 Youth, who are the seed plot of future woe or weal. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 24 We call any plain Superficies, whose Sides are unequal..a Plot, as of a Field, Wood, Park.., and the like. 1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. vii. 146 The little plots, which the several families possess, and cultivate. 1820W. Irving Sketch Bk., Rural Life Eng. §9 The trim hedge, the grass plot before the door. 1891Law Rep. Weekly Notes 82/2 A land company..afterwards sold the adjoining land in building plots.
†b. The place on which a building, town, city, etc. is situated; site, situation. Obs.
1548W. Patten Exped. Scot. A iij b, The plot of this Castell standeth so naturally strong. 1551Robinson More's Utop. ii. i. (1895) 119 Cities..in all poyntes fashioned a lyke, as farfurth as the place or plotte suffereth. 1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1549/1 He likewise began..the strengthening of Athelon with gates and other fortifications, the foundation and plot of the bridge of Caterlagh. 1601Holland Pliny I. 114 They who founded it..were so blind as that they could not choose it for the plot of Chalcedon. 1603T. M. Progr. to London of Jas. I C iij, He bestowed this day in surueying of the plots and fortifications [of Berwick].
II. In the following senses plat occurs earlier; see plat n.3
3. a. A ground-plan of a building, city, field, farm, or any area or part of the earth's surface; a map, a chart: = plat n.3 2.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. ii. Pref., To drawe the plotte of any countreie that you shall come in, as iustely as maie be. 1579–80North Plutarch (1676) 439 Hannibal..drew a plot of a City..and caused it to be built and inhabited. 1628Digby Voy. Medit. (1868) 50 Our English plottes are verie ill made, and the land wrong drawne where wee haue litle trade. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. ii. 11 How to take the Plott of a Field at one Station. 1706Phillips, To Prick a Plot (among Sailers), is..to make a small Prick in the Plot or Chart in that Latitude and Longitude, where the Ship is suppos'd to be at that time. 1775Johnson West. Islands Wks. X. 339 The ruins of the cathedral of Elgin... Its whole plot is easily traced. 1881Scribner's Mag. Apr. 835 It will be seen on reference to the plot of the place. 1899Middleton & Chadwick Treat. Surveying I. iv. 146 It is often desirable to make a preliminary plot, as work progresses, to see how the work comes in. 1931M. Hotine Surv. from Air Photogr. ix. 159 The minor control plot is the foundation of all subsequent detail plotting and will repay time and care spent on its construction. 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 13 June 11 Frequent advice from the plot was called for as to the safe course to steer. 1962Times 22 Mar. 14/7, I had no idea where I was as there was no automatic plot in my ship and we had been too busy to keep an accurate reckoning. 1971R. J. P. Wilson Land Surveying ii. 45 Once the pencil plot has been completed and checked the chain survey network of lines..is inked in. 1973H. Gruppe Truxton Cipher xv. 154 Is it not standard procedure for the Combat Information Center to keep a plot of the ship's movements?
†b. fig. The type or representation of something. Obs. rare.
1597Middleton Wisd. Solomon ii. 24 Blotted by him that is the plot of evil, Undone, corrupted, vanquish'd by the devil.
c. Theatr. A scheme or plan indicating the disposition and function of lighting and stage property in a particular production.
1883D. Cook On Stage I. x. 219 The property-maker is duly furnished with a ‘plot’ or list of articles required of his department. 1949T. Rattigan Harlequinade 56 The lighting for this scene has gone mad. This isn't our plot. There's far too much light. Ibid. 57 Check your plot, please. 1959W. C. Lounsbury Backstage from A to Z 91 Plot, a floor plan or cue sheet or both, indicating location of lights, furniture, props, etc. Light plots, furniture plots, and prop plots should be made by the person responsible for each field, and notations of cues and changes should be clearly indicated.
d. A diagram showing the relation between two variable quantities each measured along one of a pair of axes usu. at right angles; = graph n.1 2.
1912Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. XXXIV. 462 And reading from this plot by extrapolation to Cλ = 0, the value of 1/λ0. 1947E. E. Wahlstrom Ign. Minerals & Rocks viii. 240 (caption) Harker plot of analyses in Table 6. 1953E. R. Peck Electricity & Magnetism ix. 279 Sometimes it is of interest not only to use the ratio B/H, but to plot in detail the B-H curve. Such plots are basic in the discussion of ferromagnetism. 1971Physics Bull. Feb. 86/1 A ln σ against 1/T plot should, at the temperature of conversion, exhibit a change of slope.
e. R.A.F. slang. A group of enemy aircraft as represented on a radar screen.
1943P. Brennan et al. Spitfires over Malta 44 We warned the new boys to be careful, as it was probably a big plot coming in and they would be certain to bomb Ta-kali. 1959R. Collier City that wouldn't Die vii. 109 Every radar station reported a mass plot and the planes flew too high for visual checks.
†4. fig. A sketch or outline of a literary work. Cf. plat n.3 3. Obs.
1548Patten Exped. Scot. Pref. D ij b, Least I mai woorthely be doubted by the plot of my Prologe, to haue made the foorme of my booke lyke the proportion of sainct Peters man, I will here leaue of further proces of Preface. 1554Ld. Darnley in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. II. 249 It haith pleased your moste excellente Maiestie laitlie to accepte a little Plote of my simple penning, which I termed Vtopia Nova. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. Ded. §15 Such a plotte made and recorded to memorie; may..minister light to any publique designation. a1626Middleton Women Beware Women v. i. 170 Why, sure, this plot's drawn false; here's no such thing.
†b. ? A device, a design. Obs. rare.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. v. Wks. 1856 I. 60 Hee..makes six plots of set faces, before he speakes one wise word.
†5. A plan or scheme for the constitution or accomplishment of anything; a purpose, device, design, scheme: = plat n.3 4. Obs. (exc. as in 7).
1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1397/1 That the kalendar once reformed according to this plot, need neuer hereafter either to be altered or amended. 1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 609/1 There have beene divers good plottes devised, and wise counsells cast alleready about reformation of that realme. 1607T. Sparke Brotherly Persuasion B ij, I neuer yet could bee brought..to thinke that forme and plot of Church gouernment so much admired and magnified as the perpetuall and onely fit gouernment for Christes Church..fitting for such a Monarchye as this is. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. vii. 310 This is the great design and plot of the gospel. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 269 A design or policy of the Devil..to counter-work God Almighty in the plot of christianity.
6. The plan or scheme of any literary creation, as a play, poem, or work of prose fiction. Cf. plat n.3 5.
1649Lovelace Poems 78 Th'other [Comedy] for the Gentlemen oth' Pit, Like to themselves all Spirit, Fancy, Wit In which plots should be subtile as a Flame. 1677W. Hughes Man of Sin iii. iii. 62 The Plots of the best Poets may sometimes have a hole pick'd in them. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. vi. §16 To censure the plot of a play. 1759Goldsm. Misc. Wks. (1837) III. 495 The whole plot of these five cantos is no more than a young lady happening to prick her finger with a needle. 1852Lewis Meth. Reason. Politics v. §5. 118 In every narrative, there is a certain connexion of events..which, in a work of fiction, is called a plot. 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer ii. 28 In the plot of the Odyssey, symmetry is obvious at first sight: in the plot of the Iliad, it has to be sought out.
III. Probably influenced by complot.[Complot was used in Fr. from the 14th c., and occurs in Eng. c 1575. It might be even more correct to view plot in this sense as short for complot under the influence of the sense ‘plan, scheme, or device’, already present in 5. The usage probably became widely known in connexion with the ‘Gunpowder Plot’.] 7. A plan or project, secretly contrived by one or more persons, to accomplish some wicked, criminal, or illegal purpose; a conspiracy; also in later use, humorously for a sly plan, an innocent scheme.
1594Shakes. Rich. III i. i. 32 Plots haue I laide, Inductions dangerous,..To set my Brother Clarence and the King In deadly hate. 1617Vicars (title) Mischeefes Mysterie: or, Treasons Master-peece, The Powder-plot. Inuented by hellish Malice. a1634Chapman Alphonsus v. iv, He only knew All Plotts, and complots of his villanie. 1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. 83 Plots, true or false, are necessary things To raise up commonwealths, and ruin kings. 1683Evelyn Diary 18 June, The Popish Plot also..began now sensibly to dwindle, thro' the folly, knavery, impudence, and giddiness of Oates. 1769Robertson Chas. V, iii. Wks. 1813 V. 336 The author of this dangerous plot was Charles, duke of Bourbon. 1838Thirlwall Greece IV. xxx. 127 They could not..have suspected the plots which were laid for their destruction. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 267 There were two plots..The object of the great Whig plot was to raise the nation in arms against the government. The lesser plot, commonly called the Rye House plot,..had for its object the assassination of the king and of the heir presumptive.
IV.
8. attrib. and Comb., as (in sense 2) plot-holder, plot-owner, plot-place; (in sense 3 e) plot-room; (in sense 6) plot-building, plot-construction, plot-formula, plot-interest, plot-seller, plot-source, plot-spinning, plot-structure; (in sense 7) plot-caster, plot-mad (see mad a. 4 c), plot-maker, plot-master, plot-monger, plot-night, plot-weaver; plot-divided a., divided into plots; plot-line, (a) the main features of a plot or story; a summary; (b) (see quot. 1961); plot-proof a., proof against plots; plot-ratio, a ratio representing the density of building in a specified area of land (see quot. 1971).
1901Scribner's Mag. XXIX. 505/2 The fault [found] with the average successful American novel is that its workmanship is inferior; inferior to its *plot-building and invention.
1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 4 The first *plotcasters of their innocent brethrens ruines. 1612T. James Jesuits' Downf. 62 [He] then tooke vpon him with his Iesuiticall Plotcasters, to be an Actor, an orator or a broker.
1885H. O. Forbes Nat. Wand. E. Archip. 170 Rice, which they grew..on the wet system, in *plot-divided terraces.
1957N. Frye Anat. Criticism 52 We may think of our romantic, high mimetic and low mimetic modes as a series of displaced myths, mythoi or *plot-formulas.
1881Philad. Press 8 June 2 The *plotholders in the Easton Cemetery held their annual meeting Monday night.
1865Fortn. Rev. 15 Dec. 354 The distinctive element in Fiction is that of *plot-interest. The rest is vehicle. 1866H. Sidgwick in A. & E. M. Sidgwick Henry Sidgwick (1906) 143 The plot-interest does not turn entirely on amativeness. 1961M. McCarthy On Contrary (1962) 290 The chief plot interest in these books is to try to find out what happened before the book started. 1965K. Graham Eng. Criticism of Novel iv. 99 By 1883..his [sc. Wilkie Collins's] brand of plot-interest was..out-moded.
1957J. D. Salinger Zooey in New Yorker 4 May 33/3 The *plot line [sc. of ‘a sort of prose home movie’]..is largely the result of a rather unholy collaborative effort. 1961Bowman & Ball Theatre Lang. 267 Plot line, usually in the plural: Dialogue essential to the unfolding of the plot of a dramatic piece. 1962John o' London's 12 Apr. 363/1 Its [sc. a film's] plot-line has the same grotesque implausibility. 1972P. H. Kocher Master of Middle-Earth iv. 57 Like Greek drama or Miltonic epic which begin late along their plot lines, The Lord of the Rings begins just before the climax of Sauron's efforts to subdue the West. 1976S. Hynes Auden Generation viii. 294 The main plot-line concerns an indigent painter..whose only completed picture..is seized by bailiffs.
1867G. Meredith Vittoria xxxvii. III. 83 She saw that he was *plot-mad, and she set him at work on a stupendous plot.
1961Encounter Apr. 71/1 Either Querry is right, or God is a *plot-maker, working through his inferior priests,..ready to use any degree of absurdity..to get His own way.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xiv. (1623) 771 The chiefe *plot⁓master, the Earle.
1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 11 (1754) 56 He is no *plot-monger, as a less conjurer than you..might have easily seen. 1818Edin. Rev. XXX. 175 Deluded by the fabrications of our plot-mongers.
1900N. & Q. 9th Ser. VI. 509/1 Light-coloured ‘parkin’ or ‘*plot-night’ (Guy Fawkes) treacle or gingerbread made of ordinary household flour.
1907Daily Chron. 3 June 3/6 An association of..*plot-owners has been formed for the purpose of improving their position.
1611Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. xxxi. (1614) 61/1 The Grey Friars..whose suppression hath suppressed the *plot-place of his grave.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. ii. iii. 6 The harlot-King Is quite beyond mine Arme, out of the blanke And leuell of my braine: *plot proofe.
1956Archit. Rev. CXIX. 46 The main area of the site is developed according to the *plot-ratio of 5:1 laid down by the City Corporation. 1958Listener 23 Oct. 642/2 Plot ratios and daylight factors are now everyday tools at the disposal of the designer; only a decade ago such logical aids did not exist. 1971P. Gresswell Environment 81 The density of business and commercial areas is usually expressed by total floor space of buildings divided by the area of the site, called ‘floor space index’ when local access roads are included, and plot ratios when they are not. 1973Geo. Abstr. F. 65 The development of secondary dwelling areas should be subordinated to an overall objective for total land use intensity and the relation between gross and net plot ratios, together with the proportion of open space that is derived from this. 1978N.Y. Rev. Bks. 23 Feb. 4/2 Leslie Martin, the most influential architectural teacher,..has for years pointed out that a far more effective use of a plot ratio can be devised than tower blocks.
1947Times 3 Feb. 6/6 Below in the *plot rooms radar engineers checked their screens for the position of the Home Fleet and exchanged bearings with the navigating officers.
1938O. Sitwell Trio 60 The well-known *plot-seller, Mr. X. Y. Z., is at present planning a new financial coup.
1885J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps Outl. Life Shakes. (ed. 5) 566 The subtle devices..some of which..may be equally observed..in the original *plot⁓sources of his dramas.
1962Times 24 Apr. 14/7 Passages of *plot-spinning conversation.
1957N. Frye Anat. Criticism 207 The source of tragic effect must be sought..in the tragic mythos or *plot-structure. 1962Punch 11 July 65/1 A good film..can hide even the most elaborate plot-structure by superficial casualness and naturalism. 1977Dædalus Fall 107 Work on plot structure, the goal of which is a grammar of plots, has been carried out in many countries.
1897Dublin Rev. Apr. 303 The most successful..of all these *plot-weavers was..the Secretary Cecil.
▪ II. plot, v.1|plɒt|
[f. plot n.]
1. a. trans. To make a plan, map, or diagram of (an existing object, as a portion of the earth's surface, a building, etc.); to draw to scale; to lay down on a map (as the position of a place, a ship's course); to represent by a plan or diagram (the course or result of any action or process). to plot (one quantity) against, versus, etc. (another): to draw a graph in which ordinates (y-coordinates) represent values of the first quantity and abscissas (x-coordinates) represent those of the second. Also with down. Also fig.
1590Greene Francescos Fortunes To Rdrs., Wks. (Grosart) VIII. 118 You may see plotted downe many passions full of repentant sorrowes. 1602Carew Cornwall To Rdr., Reckon therefore..that this treatise plotteth downe Cornwall, as it now standeth. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. iv. 16 How to Plot a Field by the Rule before⁓going. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Surveying, All closes, or parcels of land, are either such as need not be plotted for finding their true measure..or such as cannot be conveniently measured without plotting or protraction. 1859Bache Discuss. Magn. & Meteorol. Observ. i. 18 If we plot the disturbance curve on the same scale. 1860Merc. Marine Mag. VII. 236 The Commander..had so plotted the rock upon his chart. 1880W. C. Roberts Introd. Metallurgy 34 The results, tabulated or plotted into curves..form permanent records of the greatest value. 1883Century Mag. Oct. 944/1 Plotting down this position on the chart, it appeared that Cape Rivers, on the island of Celebes, was the nearest land, bearing S. by E. 125 miles. 1910Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. XXXII. 1015 The method of procedure employed has been to plot the values obtained by each observer for Δt/N as ordinates against those of log N as abscissas. 1934Proc. R. Soc. A. CXLV. 576 This would be shown clearly if the density were plotted against the logarithm of exposure, as is usually done for photographic plates. 1952J. P. Casey Pulp & Paper II. xvi. 825 Stress-strain curves can be plotted as load scale reading versus angular deflection. 1976Sci. Amer. Dec. 93/1 Data from spectrophotometry..enable one to plot the supernova's change in radius with respect to time.
b. To make or draw by plotting.
1863H. S. Merrett Pract. Treat. Sci. Land & Engin. Surveying ii. 124 For practical purposes, surveys should never be plotted to a less scale than three or four chains to the inch. 1886H. S. Brown Autobiog. vii. (1887) 30 They were busy plotting their maps. 1906Breed & Hosmer Princ. & Pract. Surveying I. xv. 397 The field maps of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey are usually plotted on a scale of 1/10000. 1923D. Clark Plane & Geodetic Surveying II. vi. 244 In plotting the map, the distances and elevations required must be obtained from the perspective dimensions on the photographs. 1963W. K. Kilford Elem. Air Survey xi. 240 The radial-line plotter makes it possible to plot a map from the model formed in an ordinary mirror stereoscope. 1976J. B. Garner et al. Surveying ii. 21 When the survey has been plotted it should, if possible, be checked visually on the ground.
2. a. To make a plan of (something to be laid out, constructed, or made, as a city, fortress, garden, railway). Also with out and fig.
1588Spenser Virg. Gnat 652 He gins to fashion forth a place; And squaring it in compasse well beseene, There plotteth out a tombe by measured space. 1590Greene Royal Exchange Ep. Ded., Our Cittie of London..plotted and erected by Brute. 1649W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 155 When thou wouldest plot out thy Land thou designest to plant. 1887Lowell Old Eng. Dram. (1892) 40 His tragedy of ‘Dido, Queen of Carthage’, is also regularly plotted out. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 486 Unless the line of the smaller curvature be plotted out. 1915W. Holt Beacon for Blind xiv. 140 When a proposed party was being plotted out he would say, ‘Oh, don't ask the So-and-so's, they are such frumps’. 1928Oxford Poetry 9 And, a week later, still, by plotting out The course of all the roadways round about ‘In these some score of places he may be’. 1969D. Widgery in Cockburn & Blackburn Student Power 130 The next period is worth some examination to plot out the Executive's responses to a fluid situation.
b. To lay out (land) in plots.
1889C. D. Warner Stud. South & West xv. 384 There is not level ground for a large city, but what there is is plotted out for sale.
c. Theatr. To plan or devise (a stage production); to arrange lighting and stage property for (a production). (See plot n. 3 c.)
1933P. Godfrey Back-Stage iv. 44 The amount of work [for the stage-manager] involved in organizing and plotting the complete stage arrangements for a simple play with a few changes of scene is considerable. 1974Times 28 Dec. 7/3 At read-throughs and when you're plotting it [sc. a play], you stand there trembling..behind your script.
3. a. To plan, contrive, or devise (something to be carried out or accomplished); to lay plans for. Now always in evil sense.
1589Greene Menaphon Wks. (Grosart) VI. 117 Who listning not a little to this counsaile, that was neuer plotted for his aduantage. 1600E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 10 He had first plotted a warre against the Indians. 1631Gouge God's Arrows iii. §94. 360 They..plotted the..mercilesse, devilish, and damnable gunpowder-treason. 1638Rouse Heav. Univ. x. (1702) 150 Then do not think it safe to rob God of His Glory which he hath thus plotted and contrived. 1712Steele Spect. No. 263 ⁋1 The good Man and Woman..who used to sit and plot the Welfare of us their Children. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 83 Therefore, I will plot his destruction with my wit and reason, like as he hath plotted with his cunning and perfidy. 1868E. Edwards Ralegh I. xx. 451 A..protestation that whatsoever he had foolishly plotted, he had never plotted treason.
b. With inf. or clause.
1594Shakes. Rich. III, iii. v. 38 The subtill Traytor This day had plotted..To murther me. 1601B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. (Qo.) ii. ii. 3 My labouring spirit..can embrace no rest Till it hath plotted by aduise and skill How to reduce him from affected will To reasons manage. 1671Charente's Let. Customs 28 They plotted to go in the day time and build them a Hutt. 1762H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1765) I. vi. 137 Had he plotted to dethrone a princess who had delivered him from a prison and offered him a throne. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 91 And plot with thee to destroy him.
4. intr. To form a plan, device, or plot (in modern use, always for some evil, reprehensible, or hostile end); to scheme, lay plans, contrive, conspire. to plot it, to do the plotting.
1607J. Carpenter Plaine Mans Plough 1 Wel he beginneth and soundly he plotteth, who..beholdeth his face. 1611Bible Ps. xxxvii. 12 The wicked plotteth against the iust. a1720Sewel Hist. Quakers (1795) I. Pref. 18 For the Quakers, so called, have not plotted against the government. 1870Bryant Iliad i. I. 29 Oh crafty one, with whom, among the gods, Plottest thou now? 1897Rhoscomyl White Rose Arno 206 We've had about enough of your plots: I'll plot it from now on.
5. trans. To devise the plot or story of (a literary work). Also absol.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 196 Hee subscribing to me in anie thing but plotting Plaies, wherein he was his crafts master. c1650Denham On T. Killigrew's Ret. fr. Venice ii, Having plotted and penned Six plays. 1943Writer V. 99/1 Plotting problems are usually the chief difficulties fiction-writers have to face. 1951F. Brown Murder can be Fun x. 138 There's a big difference in plotting soap operas and plotting magazine stories. 1962Listener 30 Aug. 311/2 In A Burnt Out Case he [sc. Graham Greene] had kept the plotting simple, but it seemed somehow too strong all the same; ‘perhaps it would have seemed less plotted if there had been more plot.’ 1973Daily Tel. 15 Mar. 8/5 The story is confusingly plotted. 1977Ibid. 10 Sept. 7/2 Mrs Robins plots better but relies a bit much on coincidence.
▪ III. plot, v.2|plɒt|
[ad. F. peloter (p(ə)lɔte), to form into a ball (pelote): see pellet1, and cf. platoon.]
To solidify (soap paste) by pressure in a mortar (peloteuse). Hence ˈplotting vbl. n.; plotting-machine, a machine for solidifying soap.
1885W. L. Carpenter Soap & Candles vii. 200 The soap is ready for the final operation, known as ‘plotting’ (from the French, pelotage), in which the paste is subjected to enormous pressure..to form it into cakes, or..bars... Such a machine..will ‘plot’ 200 lb. at each operation.
▪ IV. † plot, v.3 Obs.
Erron. form of plod v.
1621S. Ward Happiness of Practice 15 If the gaine of practice did not sweeten it, few would plot vpon Ployden.
▪ V. plot, v.4
variant of plote v. |