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CONSPIRACY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot)
Synonyms:
cabal; conspiracy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("conspiracy" is a kind of...):
game; plot; secret plan (a secret scheme to do something (especially something underhand or illegal))
Domain category:
government; political science; politics (the study of government of states and other political units)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conspiracy"):
Gunpowder Plot (a conspiracy in 1605 in England to blow up James I and the Houses of Parliament to avenge the persecution of Catholics in England; led by Guy Fawkes)
Derivation:
conspire (engage in plotting or enter into a conspiracy, swear together)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act
Synonyms:
confederacy; conspiracy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("conspiracy" is a kind of...):
agreement; understanding (the statement (oral or written) of an exchange of promises)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conspiracy"):
conspiracy of silence (a conspiracy not to talk about some situation or event)
Derivation:
conspiratorial (relating to or characteristic of conspiracy or conspirators)
conspire (act in unison or agreement and in secret towards a deceitful or illegal purpose)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose
Synonyms:
confederacy; conspiracy
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("conspiracy" is a kind of...):
band; circle; lot; set (an unofficial association of people or groups)
Meronyms (members of "conspiracy"):
coconspirator; conspirator; machinator; plotter (a member of a conspiracy)
Derivation:
conspiratorial (relating to or characteristic of conspiracy or conspirators)
Context examples:
On the face of it you must admit, however, that it is very strange that his two servants should have been in a conspiracy against him and should have attacked him on the one night when he had a guest.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I gave him a very short relation of my voyage; of the conspiracy against me by my own men; of the country where they set me on shore, and of my five years residence there.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He was ready enough to join the conspiracy, as the only means of saving ourselves, and before we had crossed the Bay there were only two of the prisoners who were not in the secret.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
You don't think at all of what I shall do, in return; or of getting yourself into trouble for conspiracy and so forth?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
You will allow me to observe, sir, that I have personal interests of the highest importance involved in this matter, I have every reason to believe that there is a conspiracy afoot which will affect my position as heir to Lord Avon’s titles and estates.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
These rogues, whom I had picked up, debauched my other men, and they all formed a conspiracy to seize the ship, and secure me; which they did one morning, rushing into my cabin, and binding me hand and foot, threatening to throw me overboard, if I offered to stir.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Villainy is the matter; baseness is the matter; deception, fraud, conspiracy, are the matter; and the name of the whole atrocious mass is—HEEP!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He was perfectly astonished with the historical account gave him of our affairs during the last century; protesting it was only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
