intrigue

Meanings

1. A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to affect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem.
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.

1. To conceive or carry out a secret plan intended to harm; to form a plot or scheme.
2. To arouse the interest of; to fascinate.
3. To have clandestine or illicit intercourse.
4. To fill with artifice and duplicity; to complicate.

Etymology

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