the plot thickens
Used to describe an increasingly complex or mysterious situation.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The plot thickens as we find more clues.”
“The plot thickens when the manager suddenly deletes all the office emails.”
“The plot thickens as my neighbor starts digging in his garden at midnight.”
“I thought the mystery was solved, but then the plot thickens when a new witness appears.”
“We expected a quiet family dinner, but the plot thickens now that your brother has arrived with an uninvited guest and a large suitcase.”
“I assumed the company was just losing money, but the plot thickens because the CEO recently moved to a country with no extradition laws.”
“As the detective uncovered a hidden connection between the suspects, he realized the plot thickens, revealing a conspiracy far deeper than he had initially imagined.”
first recorded 17th c.
Attributed to the 1671 satirical play The Rehearsal, the phrase entered the language as a commentary on the increasingly convoluted nature of a narrative. It is first recorded in this dramatic context, where it served to note the deliberate complication of a theatrical production'
Last updated August 10, 2026