Noun

(en noun)

The course of a story, comprising a series of incidents which are gradually unfolded, sometimes by unexpected means.

* Alexander Pope

If the plot or intrigue must be natural, and such as springs from the subject, then the winding up of the plot must be a probable consequence of all that went before.

An area or land used for building on or planting on.

A graph or diagram drawn by hand or produced by a mechanical or electronic device.

A secret plan to achieve an end, the end or means usually being illegal or otherwise questionable.

The plot would have enabled them to get a majority on the board.

The assassination of Lincoln was part of a larger plot .

* Shakespeare

I have overheard a plot of death.

* Addison

O, think what anxious moments pass between / The birth of plots and their last fatal periods!

Contrivance; deep reach thought; ability to plot or intrigue.

* Denham

a man of much plot

Participation in any stratagem or conspiracy.

* Milton

And when Christ saith, Who marries the divorced commits adultery, it is to be understood, if he had any plot in the divorce.

A plan; a purpose.

* Jeremy Taylor

no other plot in their religion but serve God and save their souls

Noun

(en noun)

The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows) :

...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

The place in which something is situated; a location.

* 1833 , Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory , page 142:

[Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.

Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.

The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}

(UK, dated) A position of employment; a post.

* 1913 , , (Sons and Lovers) , Penguin 2006, page 78:

When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

* 1946 , Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, :

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

And read the situations from the front to the back

The only job that's open need a man with a knack

So put it right back in the rack Jack.

A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

Boss, we've got a situation here...