intrigue
See also: intrigué
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French intrigue, from Italian intricare, from Latin intrīcō (“I entangle, perplex, embarrass”). Doublet of intricate.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (noun) enPR: ĭn'trēg, IPA(key): /ˈɪntɹiːɡ/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (verb) enPR: ĭntrēg', IPA(key): /ɪnˈtɹiːɡ/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -iːɡ
Noun
[edit]intrigue (countable and uncountable, plural intrigues)
- A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to effect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem.
- 1858–1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
- […] lost in such a jungle of intrigues, pettifoggings, treacheries, diplomacies domestic and foreign […]
- The plot of a play, poem or romance; the series of complications in which a writer involves their imaginary characters.
- Clandestine intercourse between persons; illicit intimacy; a liaison or affair.
- 1773, The Westminster Magazine, Or, The Pantheon of Taste:
- I often used to smile at a young Ensign of the Guards, who always popped [pawned] his sword and watch when he wanted cash for an intrigue; […]
- 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 152:
- He proposed to call witnesses to show how the prisoner, a profligate and spendthrift, had been at the end of his financial tether, and had also been carrying on an intrigue with a certain Mrs. Raikes, a neighbouring farmer’s wife.
- 1976, John Harold Wilson, Court Satires of the Restoration, page 245:
- In 1679 and 1680 there were persistent rumors of an intrigue between Mary, Lady Grey, and the Duke of Monmouth.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]plot or scheme
|
the plot of a play
clandestine intercourse
Verb
[edit]intrigue (third-person singular simple present intrigues, present participle intriguing, simple past and past participle intrigued)
- (intransitive) To conceive or carry out a secret plan intended to harm; to form a plot or scheme.
- (transitive) To arouse the interest of; to fascinate.
- 1954, Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West, Houghton Mifflin, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 170:
- Scenic illusions such as those caused by the haze, or the apparent diminution of scale where everything was enormous, intrigued Dutton.
- 2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist[1], volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 19 February 2013, page 106:
- These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story. And, on top of all that, they are ornaments; they entice and intrigue and sometimes delight.
- (intransitive) To have clandestine or illicit intercourse.
- (transitive) To fill with artifice and duplicity; to complicate.
- 1533 (date written), Thomas More, “The Debellacyon of Salem and Bizance […]. Chapter XVIJ.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London: […] Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, page 1004, column 2:
- And as wililye as thoſe ſhrewes that beguyle hym haue holpe hym to inuolue and intryke the matter: I ſhall vſe ſo playn and open a way therin, that euery man ſhall well ſee the trouth.
- c. 1681, John Scott, The Christian Life from Its Beginning to Its Consummation in Glory […]:
- How doth it [sin] perplex and intrigue the whole course of your lives!
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to plan
|
to arouse interest
|
Related terms
[edit]References
[edit]- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “intrigue”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “intrigue”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
French
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Noun
[edit]intrigue f (plural intrigues)
Descendants
[edit]- → English: intrigue
Etymology 2
[edit]See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
[edit]intrigue
- inflection of intriguer:
Further reading
[edit]- “intrigue”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Portuguese
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]
Verb
[edit]intrigue
- inflection of intrigar:
Spanish
[edit]Verb
[edit]intrigue
- inflection of intrigar:
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Italian
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/iːɡ
- Rhymes:English/iːɡ/2 syllables
- English lemmas
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- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
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- English intransitive verbs
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