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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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IN'TRICATE, a. [L. intricatus, from intrico, to fold; in and tricor.] Entangled, involved; perplexed; complicated; obscure. We passed through intricate windings. We found the accounts intricate. The case on trial is intricate. The plot of a tragedy may be too intricate to please.
IN'TRICATE, v.t. To perplex; to make obscure. [Little used.]
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. | ||||||||