counterplot

American  

[koun-ter-plot, koun-ter-plot] / ˈkaʊn tərˌplɒt, ˌkaʊn tərˈplɒt /

noun

1. a plot directed against another plot.

2. Literature. a secondary theme in a play or other literary work, used as a contrast to or variation of the main theme.

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verb (used without object)

counterplotted, counterplotting

1. to devise a counterplot.

verb (used with object)

counterplotted, counterplotting

1. to plot against (a plot or plotter).

counterplot British  

/ ˈkaʊntəˌplɒt /

noun

1. a plot designed to frustrate another plot

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verb

1. (tr) to oppose with a counterplot

2. (intr) to devise or carry out a counterplot

Etymology

Origin of counterplot

First recorded in 1590–1600; counter- + plot

Example Sentences

Unlike the “Bourne” films, whose baroque webbing of plot and counterplot suggested an allegory of global paranoia, “Haywire” goes to great lengths to avoid being about anything beyond its immediate situations and effects.

From New York Times • Jan. 19, 2012

Impossible Mission Force, the counter espionage team, stages a counterplot to stave off the nuclear destruction of a U.S. city.

From Time Magazine Archive

From Berlin, a counterplot by Himmler, designed only to steal the play away from Wolff, threatened to retire Sunrise to the limbo of lost causes.

From Time Magazine Archive

Patiently, month after month, the FBI had been trying to untangle the all-but-invisible skeins of plot and counterplot by which Russia had stolen U.S. atomic secrets.

From Time Magazine Archive

I don't think the lady will scream, for it seems to me that there's a kind of counterplot afoot—either against Billy, the Turkish government, or Miss Arkwright.

From The Gay Adventure A Romance by Bird, Richard

Related Words

• plot
• scheme
• sedition
• treason