0 past simple and past participle of mastermind
1 to plan a difficult activity, often a crime, in detail and make certain that it happens successfully:
The mass parties masterminded the selection of the political class and administrative positions, but they did so using criteria which, at least in part, were subject to public debate.
He masterminded the huge tax bonanza—the giveaway—to those who did not need it, which caused all the problems that the country now faces.
He has masterminded—if that is the right word—the changes.
Yet the party that masterminded that disaster had the nerve to call this debate tonight.
I rather liked him saying, as one who had just masterminded the winning of a general election, that he was quite a keen politician.
He then masterminded the escape of many allied pilots and prisoners of war behind enemy lines.
The person who proposed and masterminded the changes has also announced that he will go.
The opting-out proposals were masterminded by two self-seeking, unelected bureaucrats.
