intrigue

Etymology

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

noun

1. A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to effect 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.
   In 1679 and 1680 there were persistent rumors of an intrigue between Mary, Lady Grey, and the Duke of Monmouth. 1976, John Harold Wilson, Court Satires of the Restoration, page 245

verb

1. (intransitive) To conceive or carry out a secret plan intended to harm; to form a plot or scheme.
2. (transitive) To arouse the interest of; to fascinate.
   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. 2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2013-02-19, page 106
3. (intransitive) To have clandestine or illicit intercourse.
4. (transitive) To fill with artifice and duplicity; to complicate.
   How doth it [sin] perplex and intrigue the whole course of your lives! c. 1681, John Scott, The Christian Life from Its Beginning to Its Consummation in Glory[…]