intricate Meaning, Definition & Usage

adjective satellite having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate
- intricate lacework

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.
His style was fit to convey the most intricate business to the understanding with the utmost clearness. Addison.

The nature of man is intricate. Burke.
Syn. -- Intricate, Complex, Complicated. 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.

To entangle; to involve; to make perplexing. Obs.
It makes men troublesome, and intricates all wise discourses. Jer. Taylor.