cahoots
Scheming together, informally
Cahoots appears almost exclusively in the phrase in cahoots, meaning in secret partnership or conspiracy: The mayor was in cahoots with the developers.
The word carries a whiff of shady dealing—people in cahoots are usually up to something underhanded.
It's informal and slightly old-fashioned, with a hint of playfulness even when describing genuine corruption.
Clandestine coordinated scheming
- complicityShared criminal involvement
- connivanceWillful blindness to wrongdoing
- plottingDevising a secret plan
- schemingCrafty and calculating
collaboration · alliance · partnership · cooperation · league · tandem · accomplice · confederate
Storyline or land parcel
- schemeCalculated strategy, often secretive
- cabalScheming political faction
- intrigueSecret plotting or fascination
- machinationCrafty scheming, often hostile
subterfuge · espionage · sedition · treason · sabotage · betrayal · treachery · subversion
Formal union of parties
- collaborationJoint intellectual work
- teamworkJoint effort toward shared aim
- cooperationJoint action toward shared aims
- joint ventureCollaborative business arrangement
coalition · affiliation · association · syndicate · network · duo · trio · accomplice
conspiracy
Clandestine coordinated scheming
- complicityShared criminal involvement
- connivanceWillful blindness to wrongdoing
- plottingDevising a secret plan
scheming · collaboration · alliance · partnership · cooperation · league · tandem · accomplice · confederate · cohort
plot
Storyline or land parcel
- schemeCalculated strategy, often secretive
- cabalScheming political faction
- intrigueSecret plotting or fascination
machination · subterfuge · espionage · sedition · treason · sabotage · betrayal · treachery · subversion · moles
alliance
Formal union of parties
- collaborationJoint intellectual work
- teamworkJoint effort toward shared aim
- cooperationJoint action toward shared aims
joint venture · coalition · affiliation · association · syndicate · network · duo · trio · accomplice · confederate
- American slangbamboozle, bogus, bunkum, conniption, discombobulate
- corruptioncorruption, graft, kickbacks, bribery, bribes
cahootsat odds
In a state of conflict
at loggerheads · in conflict · in opposition · at war · estranged
- in cahootsSecretly cooperating dishonestly