schemer

American  

[skee-mer] / ˈski mər /

noun

1. someone who devises plans or plots, especially underhanded ones.

   She is one of the memorable characters in literature, a born schemer and social climber unencumbered by any need to tell the truth.

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Etymology

Origin of schemer

scheme ( def. ) + -er ¹

Example Sentences

She won her first film role in 1963’s “13 Frightened Girls” as a diplomat’s daughter but found greater renown as a backstabbing schemer on the ABC soap “Peyton Place” a few years later.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2026

Duer was also an inveterate speculator and get-rich-quick schemer: “king of the alley,” as Thomas Jefferson derisively referred External link to Wall Street.

From Barron's • Mar. 1, 2026

Once again, a boy from here teams up with a girl from there to defeat a villainous schemer bent on cruel domination.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

But Lee’s also a schemer whose griminess is his superpower.

From Salon • Sep. 23, 2025

“The old schemer was hiding in the woods. I flushed him out of the bushes like a hound flushes out a fox. A merry hunt it was, wouldn’t you say, Eddie, old boy?”

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

Related Words

• rascal
• rogue