scheming
Americanadjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- schemingly adverb
- unscheming adjective
Etymology
Origin of scheming
Explanation
Scheming is an adjective that describes someone who is always doing sneaky things to make things happen, like your scheming friend who invites you to a family party because she secretly wants you to meet her adorable cousin. A scheme is a plan of action that is usually secret or kept hidden. So something described as scheming has the quality of secretive planning. For example, you might offer to keep your mom company on a long drive to drop off a relative at the airport because on the way home, you plan to ask her to stop at the big shopping mall that's right off the highway. That's the essence of being scheming — you conceal your true intentions because you believe it will help you get what you want.
Vocabulary lists containing scheming
Charlotte's Web
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Six of Crows
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As Brave as You
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She played the scheming, seductive Iris in the 1970 blaxploitation comedy classic “Cotton Comes to Harlem.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2026
“So now it looks like I had been kind of scheming and forcing this to happen,” Adkins said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 10, 2026
Meng, who had initially been charged with scheming to evade US sanctions on Iran, was freed in September 2021.
From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026
Their closeness derails Rausch’s “three steps ahead” scheming.
From Salon • Jan. 28, 2026
She watched the cheating husbands and scheming wives as faithfully as ever, but she didn’t reprimand them anymore, as if she’d given up correcting the errors of the world.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
