▪ I. plotting, vbl. n.1
(ˈplɒtɪŋ)
[-ing1.]
a. The action of plot v.1 in various senses.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 45 Without any care, fore-cast, or plotting on thy part..I shall bee to thee all in all. 1607 J. Norden Surv. Dial. iii. 127 Two principall instruments, fit indeede for the plotting of grounds,..a plaine table, and the Theodolite. 1672 Dryden Def. Epil. Wks. 1883 IV. 229 Our admired Fletcher..neither understood correct plotting, nor that which they call ‘the decorum of the stage’. 1683 Roxb. Ball. (1885) V. 329 But Heaven, I hope, will all Plotting disclose, And the Laws of the Nation shall punish the Foes. 1831 Lytton Godolphin ii, Like Lysander, he loved plotting. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 329/2 The term ‘plotting’ is applied to the process of laying down on paper the plan of the ground which has been surveyed. 1893 Athenæum 17 June 760/2 The initial plotting and construction necessary..should have occupied less time..than the trivialities which have been allowed to take their place. |
b. Comb. in sense ‘used in plotting or drawing to scale’, as
plotting-book,
plotting-paper,
plotting-scale,
plotting sheet; in sense ‘forming plots’, as
plotting-school.
plotting board, (
a) a form of drawing board on which the positions or courses of objects may be plotted; (
b)
= plotter 4 b;
plotting machine, a machine for automatically plotting maps;
plotting rod, a long rod made for moving the counters on a plotting table;
plotting table, (
a) a large table bearing a small-scale map of a region on which the positions of enemy aircraft may be represented by movable counters or the like; (
b)
= plotter 4 b.
| 1903 Jrnl. U.S. Artillery Nov.–Dec. 253 A location of a fixed target is thus plotted, the corrections for atmospheric conditions and drift are determined by the ballistic board, the range and azimuth for the gun are determined by relocation on the *plotting board, and transmitted to the gun by the gun telautograph. 1908 Geogr. Jrnl. XXXI. 544 The position in plan and height of any object can be plotted from readings of the three scales..and corresponding settings on a detached plotting-board. 1957 C. S. Forester Naval War of 1812 36 There had been exercises with a plotting-board in the Tripoli prison. 1961 S. Fifer Analogue Computation II. ix. 300 The Autograf..is an example of a cylindrical plotting board. In this case the pen is controlled, as before, by one variable, but the moving carriage is replaced by a rotating drum which is driven by the second variable. |
| 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 92/1 The *plotting-book is a simple rectangular note-book. |
| 1908 *Plotting machine [see plotter 1]. 1963 W. K. Kilford Elem. Air Survey xi. 269 Some firms produce special plotting machines in which the relative orientation is already set for use with a particular pair of short-base cameras. 1977 J. M. Smith in P. G. J. van Sterkenburg et al. Lexicologie 243 Graphical output devices, based on the principles of plotting machines, can be used too. |
| 1883 Harper's Mag. July 165/2 A..speculator whose imagination is let loose upon a *plotting paper. |
| 1948 T. E. Winslow Forewarned is Forearmed i. 19 The size of a plotting table depends also on the ‘stretch’ of a plotter provided with a *plotting rod. 1963 N. D. Smith Royal Air Force vi. 66 Plotters, using long-handled plotting rods, moved coloured magnetic counters on the large table map. |
| 1842 Brande Dict. Sc., etc., *Plotting scale, a mathematical instrument used in plotting, or setting off lengths of lines in surveying. |
| 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 31 (1713) I. 200 May he too come To have my Doom That first set up this *Plotting-school. |
| 1926 Blackw. Mag. Dec. 830/2 By degrees there appeared on the *plotting sheet a series of tiny needle-pricked marks. 1971 R. J. P. Wilson Land Surveying viii. 165 The plane table, essentially a drawing board,..carries the plotting sheet. |
| 1943 P. F. M. Fellowes Britain's Wonderful Air Force xiii. 303 At each centre there is a centre room, with a *plotting table on which is fitted a squared map. 1960 Rogers & Connolly Analog Computation in Engin. Design ii. 47 When it is desired to plot one variable against another, an XY plotting table is used. This unit employs a double servo system to drive a pen along an arm proportional to Y, and the arm along the plotting table proportional to X. 1968 Listener 15 Aug. 196/3 But it was all right to have mixed anti-aircraft batteries, with women tracking the target, and an ATS officer at the plotting table calculating the exact moment to shout the order ‘Fire’. 1973 ‘A. Hall’ Tango Briefing xviii. 224 The whole of this area was on the plotting table at the Bureau. 1977 Navy News June 8 (caption) Prince Philip and Rear-Admiral D. W. Haslam (Hydrographer of the Navy) take a close look at the computer linked automatic plotting table being described by the commanding officer of H.M.S. Hecate. |
▪ II. plotting, vbl. n.2 see
plot v.
2▪ III. plotting, ppl. a. (
ˈplɒtɪŋ)
[f. plot v.1 + -ing2.] That plots, scheming.
| 1676 D'Urfey (title) A Fond Husband, or the Plotting Sisters: a Comedy. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. xxiii. 125 Have I not called thine the plottingest heart in the universe? 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iv. I. 476 The burgesses of Wigan assured their sovereign that they would defend him against all plotting Achitophels and rebellious Absaloms. |
Hence
ˈplottingly adv.| 1742 Richardson Pamela IV. 106 There never..could be a Gentleman, so foolishly tender, yet so plottingly cruel, to his Lady. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 31 Frederick the Great, with head drooped plottingly. |