marplot

marplot

English

Etymology

From mar +‎ plot. In earliest use as a character name in The Busy Body, by Susanna Centlivre.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑːplɒt/

Noun

marplot (plural marplots)

1. A meddlesome person whose activity interferes with the plans of others. [from 18th c.]
   • 1920, Peter B. Kyne, The Understanding Heart, Chapter XI

     “The old marplot has discovered the baby,” Monica whispered. “I suppose it cried and woke him up, and now he thinks he's witness to a miracle.”

   • 2012, Michael Burleigh, ‘Keeping the Flame Alive’, Literary Review, 402:

     Unthinking Anglo-Saxons regard him as a Gallic marplot, rather than the great twentieth-century statesman he was – certainly the greatest Frenchman since Napoleon.

See also

• backseat driver
• busybody
• buttinski, buttinsky
• encroacher
• gatecrasher
• interloper
• intruder
• kibitzer
• meddler
• nosy parker
• peeping tom
• persona non grata
• stickybeak
• yenta, yente

 

Adjective

marplot (comparative more marplot, superlative most marplot)

1. (now rare) That foils a plot; interfering. [from 18th c.]
   • 1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, vol. V, letter 83:

     Let us argue the point with this pert, unruly, marplot conscience of mine…

Anagrams

• Lamport