SCHEMING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scheming mean? 

• SCHEMING (adjective)
  The adjective SCHEMING has 2 senses:

1. acting with a specific goal

2. concealing crafty designs for advancing your own interest

  Familiarity information: SCHEMING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCHEMING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Acting with a specific goal

Synonyms:

calculating; calculative; conniving; scheming; shrewd

Context example:

the most calculating and selfish men in the community

Similar:

hard (dispassionate)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Concealing crafty designs for advancing your own interest

Synonyms:

designing; scheming

Context example:

a scheming gold digger

Similar:

artful (marked by skill in achieving a desired end especially with cunning or craft)

 Context examples 

He was a sly, subtle, scheming man, and several things arose which gave me a suspicion of him, but I had no cause for any positive quarrel.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Not in your sense of the word, but in mine you are scheming to destroy me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I say that we should be scheming how to get out of it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You need the money. I've got more than I need. You want it. You came for it. There's no use scheming it out of me. Take it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Mrs Clay's affections had overpowered her interest, and she had sacrificed, for the young man's sake, the possibility of scheming longer for Sir Walter.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Well, this injury, as he would consider it, has rankled in his wicked, scheming brain, and all his life he has longed for vengeance, but never seen his chance.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I can see now how she was plotting and scheming and poisoning my wife’s mind against me, but I was such a blind beetle that I could not understand it at the time.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Had he appeared surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am far from attributing any part of Mr. Bingley's conduct to design, said Elizabeth; but without scheming to do wrong, or to make others unhappy, there may be error, and there may be misery.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

His mind, now disengaged from the cares which had pressed on him at first, was at leisure to find the Grants and their young inmates really worth visiting; and though infinitely above scheming or contriving for any the most advantageous matrimonial establishment that could be among the apparent possibilities of any one most dear to him, and disdaining even as a littleness the being quick-sighted on such points, he could not avoid perceiving, in a grand and careless way, that Mr. Crawford was somewhat distinguishing his niece—nor perhaps refrain (though unconsciously) from giving a more willing assent to invitations on that account.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)