intrigue
verb/ɪnˈtriːɡ/
/ɪnˈtriːɡ/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they intrigue | /ɪnˈtriːɡ/ /ɪnˈtriːɡ/ |
| he / she / it intrigues | /ɪnˈtriːɡz/ /ɪnˈtriːɡz/ |
| past simple intrigued | /ɪnˈtriːɡd/ /ɪnˈtriːɡd/ |
| past participle intrigued | /ɪnˈtriːɡd/ /ɪnˈtriːɡd/ |
| -ing form intriguing | /ɪnˈtriːɡɪŋ/ /ɪnˈtriːɡɪŋ/ |
- [transitive] to make somebody very interested and want to know more about something
- intrigue somebody The idea intrigued her.
- You've really intrigued me—tell me more!
- There was something about him that intrigued her.
- it intrigues somebody that… It intrigues me that no one appears to have thought of this before.
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- [intransitive] intrigue (with somebody) (against somebody) (formal) to secretly plan with other people to harm somebody
Word Originearly 17th cent. (in the sense ‘deceive, cheat’): from French intrigue ‘plot’, intriguer ‘to tangle, to plot’, via Italian from Latin intricare, from in- ‘into’ + tricae ‘tricks, perplexities’.Sense (1) of the verb, which was influenced by a later French sense “to puzzle, make curious”, arose in the late 19th cent.
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intrigue