Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A plot or scheme intended to subvert another plot.
  • intransitive verb To oppose or subvert one plot with another.
  • intransitive verb To plot against; thwart with a counterplot.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A plot or artifice advanced in opposition to another.
  • To oppose or frustrate by another plot or stratagem.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To oppose, as another plot, by plotting; to attempt to frustrate, as a stratagem, by stratagem.
  • noun A plot or artifice opposed to another.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A plot made in opposition to another; a counterploy.
  • verb intransitive, transitive To form a plot or plan in opposition to the actions of another.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make a plot in response to another plot
  • noun a plot intended to subvert another plot

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From counter- +‎ plot.

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Examples

  • It was warfare dark and devious, replete with intrigue and conspiracy, plot and counterplot.

    Chapter 16: The End 2010

  • And as I watch yet another hour of portentous posturing, as Anna blabs on about "the magnitude of what is coming" while the rebels of the Fifth Column counterplot against them, I can't help also wonder what in the world the V's are waiting for.

    Roush Review: Return of V and Southland 2011

  • As the mysterious Unwritten cabal set their own counterplot in motion to stop him, Tom arrives at the Swiss villa where Frankenstein was conceived and witnesses a terrifying vision!

    DC Comics for June 2009 | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009

  • Myra, always imagining stories that she might use as plays, concocts a counterplot.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • When Zeus had snatched him from the lightning's blaze, and to Olympus borne the tender babe, Hera would have cast him forth from heaven, but Zeus, as such a god well might, devised a counterplot.

    The Bacchantes 2008

  • Myra, always imagining stories that she might use as plays, concocts a counterplot.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • When Zeus had snatched him from the lightning's blaze, and to Olympus borne the tender babe, Hera would have cast him forth from heaven, but Zeus, as such a god well might, devised a counterplot.

    The Bacchantes 2008

  • Myra, always imagining stories that she might use as plays, concocts a counterplot.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • Myra, always imagining stories that she might use as plays, concocts a counterplot.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • On the strength of these profound views, he in the most ingenious manner takes infinite pains to counterplot when there is no plot, and plays the deepest games of chess without any adversary.

    Bleak House 2007

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