Intricate
(In"tri*cate) a. [L. intricatus, p. p. of intricare to entangle, perplex. Cf. Intrigue, Extricate.]
Entangled; involved; perplexed; complicated; difficult to understand, follow, arrange, or adjust; as, intricate
machinery, labyrinths, accounts, plots, etc.
His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness.
Addison.
The nature of man is intricate.
Burke. Syn. — Intricate, Complex, Complicated. A thing is complex when it is made up of parts; it is complicated
when those parts are so many, or so arranged, as to make it difficult to grasp them; it is intricate when it
has numerous windings and confused involutions which it is hard to follow out. What is complex must
be resolved into its parts; what is complicated must be drawn out and developed; what is intricate must
be unraveled.
Intricate
(In"tri*cate) v. t. To entangle; to involve; to make perplexing. [Obs.]
It makes men troublesome, and intricates all wise discourses.
Jer. Taylor. Intricately
(In"tri*cate*ly) adv. In an intricate manner.
Intricateness
(In"tri*cate*ness), n. The state or quality of being intricate; intricacy.
Intrication
(In`tri*ca"tion) n. Entanglement. [Obs.]
Intrigante
(||In`tri`gante") n. [F.] A female intriguer.
Intrigue
(In*trigue") v. i. [imp. & p. p. Intrigued (- tregd"); p. pr. & vb. n. Intriguing.] [F. intriguer,
OF. intriquer, entriquer; cf. It. intrigare. See Intricate, Extricate.]
1. To form a plot or scheme; to contrive to accomplish a purpose by secret artifice.
2. To carry on a secret and illicit love or amour.
Intrigue
(In*trigue"), v. t. To fill with artifice and duplicity; to complicate; to embarrass. [Obs.]
How doth it [sin] perplex and intrique the whole course of your lives!
Dr. J. Scott. Intrigue
(In*trigue"), n. [Cf. F. intrique. See Intrigue, v. i.]
1. Intricacy; complication. [Obs.] Sir M. Hale.
2. A complicated plot or scheme intended to effect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem.
Busy meddlers with intrigues of state.
Pomfret. 3. The plot of a play or romance; a complicated scheme of designs, actions, and events. Pope.
4. A secret and illicit love affair between two persons of different sexes; an amour; a liaison.
The hero of a comedy is represented victorious in all his intrigues.
Swift. Syn. — Plot; scheme; conspiracy; machination.
