- a crafty and involved plot to achieve your (usually sinister) ends

- a clandestine love affair

- form intrigues (for) in an underhand manner

- cause to be interested or curious

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.

1. To fill with artifice and duplicity; to complicate; to embarrass. [Obs.]

"How doth it [sin] perplex and intrique the whole course of your lives!" -- Dr. J. Scott.

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.

4. A secret and illicit love affair between two persons of different sexes; an amour; a liaison.

"The hero of a comedy is represented victorious in all his intrigues." -- Swift.

Syn. -- Plot; scheme; conspiracy; machination.