intrigue

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

entrigue

EtymologyEdit

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

PronunciationEdit

(noun) enPR: ĭn'trēg, IPA^(key): /ˈɪntɹiːɡ/
- Audio (UK) (file)
(verb) enPR: ĭntrēg', IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɹiːɡ/
- Audio (UK) (file)
Rhymes: -iːɡ

NounEdit

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.
- 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 termsEdit

palace intrigue

TranslationsEdit

plot or scheme

Arabic: دَسِيسَة‎ (ar) f (dasīsa)
Armenian: բանսարկություն (hy) (bansarkutʿyun)
Belarusian: інтры́га f (intrýha)
Bulgarian: интри́га (bg) f (intríga), машина́ция (bg) f (mašinácija)
Catalan: intriga (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 密謀／密谋 (zh) (mìmóu), 陰謀／阴谋 (zh) (yīnmóu)
Czech: intrika f, pleticha f
Danish: intrige c
Dutch: intrige (nl) f
Esperanto: intrigo
Estonian: intriig
Finnish: juoni (fi), salajuoni (fi)
French: intrigue (fr) f
Georgian: ინტრიგა (inṭriga)
German: Intrige (de) f
Greek: ραδιουργία (el) f (radiourgía), μηχανορραφία (el) f (michanorrafía), δολοπλοκία (el) f (doloplokía)
Hindi: साज़िश f (sāziś), षड्यंत्र (hi) m (ṣaḍyantra)
Hungarian: intrika (hu), ármány (hu), áskálódás (hu), cselszövés (hu)
Icelandic: brögð (is) n pl
Italian: intrigo (it) m
Japanese: 陰謀 (ja) (いんぼう, inbō)
Korean: 음모(陰謀) (ko) (eummo)
Latvian: intriga f
Lithuanian: intriga f
Macedonian: спле́тка f (splétka), и́нтрига f (íntriga)
Maori: kara
Norwegian:
Bokmål: intrige m
Persian: دسیسه‎ (fa) (dasise), انتریگ‎ (antrig), فتنه‎ (fa) (fetne)
Polish: intryga (pl) f
Portuguese: intriga (pt) f
Romanian: intrigă (ro) f
Russian: интри́га (ru) f (intríga)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: спле̏тка f, ѝнтрӣга f

Roman: splȅtka (sh) f, ìntrīga (sh) f
Slovak: intriga f
Slovene: spletka f
Spanish: intriga (es) f
Swedish: intrig (sv) c
Tagalog: pungka
Tajik: дасиса (dasisa), фитна (fitna)
Turkish: entrika (tr)
Ukrainian: інтри́га f (intrýha)

the plot of a play

Bulgarian: интри́га (bg) f (intríga)
Catalan: intriga (ca) f
French: intrigue (fr) f
Greek: πλοκή (el) f (plokí)
Macedonian: сиже́ n (sižé), фа́була f (fábula)
Polish: fabuła (pl) f
Russian: сюже́т (ru) m (sjužét), фа́була (ru) f (fábula)
Spanish: argumento (es) m
Turkish: dolantı (tr)

clandestine intercourse

Bulgarian: та́йна любо́вна връ́зка f (tájna ljubóvna vrǎ́zka)

VerbEdit

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.
- 2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, 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 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!