1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares f. 10^v Without any care, fore-cast, or plotting on thy part..I shall bee to thee all in all.

1607 J. Norden Surueyors Dialogue iii. 127 Two principall instruments, fit indeede for the plotting of grounds,..a plaine table, and the Theodolite.

1668 J. Dryden Of Dramatick Poesie 28 One great advantage they have had in the Plotting of their Tragedies..they are always grounded upon some known History.

1683 Roxburghe Ballads (1885) V. 329 But Heaven, I hope, will all Plotting disclose, And the Laws of the Nation shall punish the Foes.

1704 C. Darby Psalms xxxi. 45 I hear of all their sland'rous words, And cruel plottings too.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Surveying Surveying consists of Three Parts or Members... The Second we call Plotting or Protracting or Mapping.

?1754 Mock Monarchs II. 43 There's always some Plotting and Scheming going forwards amongst them, 'till they get their Heads cut off.

1833 E. Bulwer-Lytton Godolphin I. ii. 22 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.

1916 E. R. Burroughs Beasts of Tarzan xviii. 271 The plottings and schemings which had ever brought him..to disaster.

1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Jan. 29/3 Miss Salisbury Davis also writes with good comic sense but less skill in plotting.

1991 Lighting Dimensions Nov. 42/1 Forthcoming systems to allow the blind plotting and programming of moving light systems will bring about a revolution.

1890 Times 27 May 11/1 The fort commander can ascertain what his objective is to be by..the use of a plotting board.

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.

1991 Motorboat & Yachting June 83/3 All too few modern motor cruisers boast a proper chart table. Blundell Harling's plotting board is, therefore, to be welcomed.

1860 Times 21 July 16/3 The stock-in-trade of an engineer, comprising..a 12-horse oscillating engine, with metallic plates,..a plotting machine, [etc.].

1908 Geogr. Jrnl. 31 536 Some central organization at home would be required for plotting the results. This could be done..by a plotter and plotting machine attached to any existing photographic establishment.

2001 GEO World (Nexis) 1 June 42 The system is a cartographic and a terrain analysis tool that also can be used to make a line map or a color-coded thematic map using computerized, automated plotting machines.

1946 Times 9 May 10/2 The ingenious Magnetic Plotting Rod designed by our engineers for use at R.A.F. control stations.

1963 N. D. Smith Royal Air Force vi. 66 Plotters, using long-handled plotting rods, moved coloured magnetic counters on the large table map.

1744 H. Beighton in Philos. Trans. 1740–41 (Royal Soc.) 41 748 I completed and published the same [sc. a map of Warwickshire] in the year 1728 and call the instrument The Plotting Table.

1917 Times 17 July 9/5 In the fight [sc. the battle of Jutland] he acted at the plotting table, and was complimented on his work.

1960 A. E. Rogers & T. W. Connolly Analog Computation in Engin. Design ii. 47 When it is desired to plot one variable against another, an XY plotting table is used.

1973 ‘A. Hall’ Tango Briefing xviii. 224 The whole of this area was on the plotting table at the Bureau.

1991 Sky Warriors 1 ii. 25/2 The rear of the aircraft has two side-by-side navigator positions facing the instruments,..with a plotting table to work on.

1885 W. L. Carpenter Treat. Manuf. Soap vii. 200 The soap is ready for the final operation, known as ‘plotting’ (from the French, pelotage), in which the paste is subjected to enormous pressure..to form it into cakes, or..bars.

1890 Cent. Dict. Plotting-machine, a form of press for shaping soap-paste into bars or cakes.

1592 W. Wyrley Capitall de Buz in True Vse Armorie 159 In thy puissance victorie doth rest And not in mans weake plotting policie.

1638 Earl of Rothes Affairs Kirk Scotl. (1830) 113 From all malitious ploating papists.

1676 D'Urfey (title) A fond husband, or the plotting sisters: a comedy.

1751 S. Richardson Clarissa (ed. 3) IV. xxiii. 115 Have I not called thine the plotting'st heart in the universe?

1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. II. v. vi. 323 Plotting Aristocrats, and excommunicating Dissident Priests.

1872 J. S. le Fanu In a Glass Darkly I. 243 The eye of a man accustomed to look upon the dock could not fail to read ‘villain’ written sharp and clear in his plotting face.

1915 A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear ii. vii. 293 The actual details of nearly every outrage had sprung from his plotting brain.

1995 Independent 29 Apr. 27/2 This is not one of those whimsical tales of smart genes and plotting parasites by which the best of us have been persuaded there is such a form as the scientifico-poet.

a1651 C. Love Combate Flesh & Spirit (1654) 34 His sinne in..the matter of Uriah, it was done more deliberately, plottingly and contrivedly.

1741 S. Richardson Pamela IV. xv.106 There never..could be a Gentleman, so foolishly tender, yet so plottingly cruel, to his Lady.

1864 J. R. Lowell Fireside Trav. 31 Frederick the Great, with head drooped plottingly.

1994 Buffalo News (N.Y.) (Nexis) 7 Dec. (Entertainment section) 6 The conceptual format, so masculine and plottingly rational and reserved in its original form.