scheme

Founding-era definition · Webster's 1828 American Dictionary

SCHEME, noun [Latin schema; Gr. from a contracted word, probably from to have or hold.] 1. A plan; a combination of things connected and adjusted by design; a system. We shall never be able to give ourselves a satisfactory account of the divine conduct without forming such a scheme of things as shall take in time and eternity. 2. A project; a contrivance; a plan of something to be done; a design. Thus we say, to form a scheme to lay a scheme to contrive a scheme The stoical scheme of supplying our wants by lopping off our desires, is like cutting off our feet when we want shoes. 3. A representation of the aspects of the celestial bodies; any lineal or mathematical diagram. SCHEME, verb transitive To plan; to contrive. SCHEME, verb intransitive To form a plan; to contrive.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI

More founding-era words: liberty · virtue · republic · justice · providence · commerce · militia · arms · prudence · establishment · religion · usurpation · tyranny · citizen · unalienable · sovereign