underplot

From under- +‎ plot.

• Audio (US):

  (file)

underplot (plural underplots)

1. A subplot; a plot that is not the main plot of a story.
   • 1882-89, A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV‎^[1]:

     I have not been able to discover the source of the very curious underplot of The Captives.

   • 1906, Walter W. Greg, Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama‎^[2]:

     Thus, again to quote Mr. Homer Smith, it has been held that 'In general the pastoral incidents serve as an underplot, utterly foreign in spirit to the main plot.'

2. A secret scheme or trick.

underplot (third-person singular simple present underplots, present participle underplotting, simple past and past participle underplotted)

1. (intransitive) To form secret schemes or plots.

• underplotter