imbroglio
(ɪmˈbrəʊljəʊ)
Also em-.
[a. It. imbroglio ‘an entangling, an enwrapping, a garboile’, etc. (Florio), f. broglio confusion: see broil n.1 and v.2]
1. A confused heap.
| 1750 Gray Long Story 66 Into the drawers and china pry, Papers and books, a huge imbroglio. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. viii. (1872) 283 It will lie there an imbroglio of torn boughs. 1864 Browning A Likeness 42, I keep my prints an imbroglio, Fifty in one portfolio. |
2. A state of great confusion and entanglement; a complicated or difficult situation (esp. political or dramatic); a confused misunderstanding or disagreement, embroilment.
| 1818 Lady Morgan Flor. Macarthy I. iv. 235 The object of this farcical embroglio was the fanciful and accomplished ideologist. 1833 J. W. Croker in C. Papers 23 Apr. (1884), A financial imbroglio would be immediate anarchy and general ruin. 1836 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. I. 57 No household imbroglios. 1864 Reader 8 Oct. 458/2 The play is exceedingly clever in its intrigue and imbroglio. 1879 Farrar St. Paul xlii. II. 351 Matters had fallen into a hopeless imbroglio. 1885 Stevenson Dynamiter 60 The terms of the letter, and the explosion of the early morning, fitted together like parts in some obscure and mischievous imbroglio. |
3. ‘A passage, in which the vocal or instrumental parts are made to sing, or play, against each other, in such a manner as to produce the effect of apparent but really well-ordered confusion’ (Grove Dict. Mus. 1880).