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intrigue

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: intrigué

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French intrigue, from Italian intricare, from Latin intrīcō (“to entangle, perplex, embarrass”). Doublet of intricate.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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intrigue (countable and uncountable, plural intrigues)

  1. A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to affect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem.
    Synonym: machination
    • 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 […]
  2. The plot of a play, poem or romance; the series of complications in which a writer involves their imaginary characters.
  3. 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; […]
    • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 309:
      Morality at Delli is at as low an ebb as in the far interior of Brazil, and crimes are connived at which would entail infamy and criminal prosecution in Europe. While I was there it was generally asserted and believed in the place, that two officers had poisoned the husbands of women with whom they were carrying on intrigues, and with whom they immediately cohabited on the death of their rivals.
    • 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

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Translations

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Verb

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intrigue (third-person singular simple present intrigues, present participle intriguing, simple past and past participle intrigued)

  1. (intransitive) To conceive or carry out a secret plan intended to harm; to form a plot or scheme.
  2. (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.
  3. (intransitive) To have clandestine or illicit intercourse.
  4. (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

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Translations

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References

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French

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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    Deverbal from intriguer.

    Noun

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    intrigue f (plural intrigues)

    1. intrigue (complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to effect some purpose by secret artifice)
      Synonym: machination
    2. (narratology) plot (the course of a story)
    Descendants
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    • → English: intrigue

    Etymology 2

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    See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

    Verb

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    intrigue

    1. inflection of intriguer:
      1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
      2. second-person singular imperative

    Further reading

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    Portuguese

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    Pronunciation

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    Verb

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    intrigue

    1. inflection of intrigar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative

    Spanish

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    Verb

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    intrigue

    1. inflection of intrigar:
      1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
      2. third-person singular imperative
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