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Wiktionary

intrigue

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 (“I 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 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 […]
  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; […]
    • 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!

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 (all senses)
  2. in particular, 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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