'Intricate' definitions:
Definition of 'intricate'
From: WordNet
adjective
Having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate; "intricate lacework"
Definition of 'Intricate'
From: GCIDE
- Intricate \In"tri*cate\, v. t. To entangle; to involve; to make perplexing. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
- It makes men troublesome, and intricates all wise discourses. --Jer. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Intricate'
From: GCIDE
- Intricate \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. [1913 Webster]
- His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
- The nature of man is intricate. --Burke.
- Syn: Intricate, Complex, Complicated.
- Usage: 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. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'intricate'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- abstruse,
- amalgamated,
- ambiguous,
- ambivalent,
- amphibious,
- anfractuous,
- arduous,
- baffling,
- balled up,
- bewildering,
- beyond one,
- blended,
- bothering,
- brutal,
- Byzantine,
- combined,
- complex,
- complicated,
- composite,
- compound,
- compounded,
- confounded,
- confounding,
- confused,
- confusing,
- conglomerate,
- convoluted,
- crabbed,
- cramp,
- critical,
- daedal,
- Daedalian,
- dappled,
- dedal,
- delicate,
- demanding,
- devious,
- difficile,
- difficult,
- discomposing,
- disconcerting,
- dismaying,
- distracting,
- disturbing,
- eclectic,
- elaborate,
- embarrassing,
- embrangled,
- enigmatic,
- entangled,
- equivocal,
- exacting,
- fancy,
- fifty-fifty,
- formidable,
- fouled up,
- garbled,
- gordian,
- hairy,
- half-and-half,
- hard,
- hard to understand,
- hard-earned,
- hard-fought,
- Herculean,
- heterogeneous,
- implicated,
- indiscriminate,
- involuted,
- involved,
- ironic,
- jawbreaking,
- jumbled,
- knotted,
- knotty,
- laborious,
- labyrinthian,
- labyrinthine,
- loused up,
- many-faceted,
- many-sided,
- matted,
- mazy,
- mean,
- meandering,
- medley,
- messed up,
- mingled,
- miscellaneous,
- mixed,
- mixed up,
- motley,
- mucked up,
- multifaceted,
- multifarious,
- multinational,
- multiracial,
- mysterious,
- mystifying,
- no picnic,
- not easy,
- obfuscated,
- obscure,
- obscured,
- operose,
- ornate,
- overtechnical,
- patchy,
- perplexed,
- perplexing,
- perturbing,
- pluralistic,
- problematic,
- promiscuous,
- puzzling,
- ramified,
- rigorous,
- rococo,
- rough,
- roundabout,
- rugged,
- scrambled,
- screwed up,
- set with thorns,
- severe,
- sinuous,
- snarled,
- sophisticated,
- spiny,
- steep,
- strenuous,
- subtle,
- syncretic,
- tangled,
- tangly,
- thorny,
- thrown together,
- ticklish,
- toilsome,
- tortuous,
- tough,
- tricky,
- twisted,
- uphill,
- upsetting,
- varied,
- wicked,
- winding