Part 356

In"tri*ca*ble (?), a. [See Intricate.] Entangling. [Obs.] Shelton.

In"tri*ca*cy (?), n.; pl. Intricacies (#). [From Intricate.] The state or quality of being intricate or entangled; perplexity; involution; complication; complexity; that which is intricate or involved; as, the intricacy of a knot; the intricacy of accounts; the intricacy of a cause in controversy; the intricacy of a plot.

Freed from intricacies, taught to live The easiest way.

Milton.

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.

In"tri*cate (?), v. t. To entangle; to involve; to make perplexing. [Obs.]

It makes men troublesome, and intricates all wise discourses.

Jer. Taylor.

In"tri*cate*ly (?), adv. In an intricate manner.

In"tri*cate*ness, n. The state or quality of being intricate; intricacy.

In`tri*ca"tion (?), n. Entanglement. [Obs.]

||In`tri`gante" (?), n. [F.] A female intriguer. || <! p. 783 !>

In*trigue" (n*trg"), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Intrigued (- trgd"); 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.

In*trigue", v. t. To fill with artifice and duplicity; to complicate; to embarrass. [Obs.]

How doth it perplex and intrique the whole course of your lives!

Dr. J. Scott.

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.