'Difficult' definitions:
Definition of 'difficult'
(from WordNet)
adjective
Not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure; "a difficult task"; "nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access"; "difficult times"; "why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?" [syn: difficult, hard] [ant: easy]
adjective
Hard to control; "a difficult child", "an unmanageable situation" [syn: unmanageable, difficult] [ant: manageable]
Definition of 'Difficult'
From: GCIDE
- Difficult \Dif"fi*cult\, a. [From Difficulty.]
- 1. Hard to do or to make; beset with difficulty; attended with labor, trouble, or pains; not easy; arduous. [1913 Webster]
- Note: Difficult implies the notion that considerable mental effort or skill is required, or that obstacles are to be overcome which call for sagacity and skill in the agent; as, a difficult task; hard work is not always difficult work; a difficult operation in surgery; a difficult passage in an author. [1913 Webster]
- There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange, and difficult world, alone. --Hawthorne. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Hard to manage or to please; not easily wrought upon; austere; stubborn; as, a difficult person.
- Syn: Arduous; painful; crabbed; perplexed; laborious; unaccommodating; troublesome. See Arduous. [1913 Webster]
Definition of 'Difficult'
From: GCIDE
- Difficult \Dif"fi*cult\, v. t. To render difficult; to impede; to perplex. [R.] --Sir W. Temple. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'difficult'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- abstruse,
- adverse,
- antagonistic,
- arduous,
- awkward,
- baffling,
- beyond one,
- bloody-minded,
- brutal,
- burdensome,
- cantankerous,
- complex,
- complicated,
- conflicting,
- contrary,
- counter,
- counteractive,
- crabbed,
- cramp,
- critical,
- cross-grained,
- dark,
- delicate,
- demanding,
- detrimental,
- difficile,
- effortful,
- enigmatical,
- exacting,
- fastidious,
- finical,
- finicking,
- finicky,
- finikin,
- formidable,
- froward,
- fuss-budgety,
- fussy,
- garbled,
- grim,
- hairy,
- hard,
- hard to please,
- hard to understand,
- hard-earned,
- hard-fought,
- harmful,
- Herculean,
- hostile,
- ill-behaved,
- in opposition,
- inimical,
- intractable,
- intricate,
- irascible,
- jawbreaking,
- jumbled,
- knotted,
- knotty,
- labored,
- laborious,
- mean,
- miserable,
- naughty,
- nit-picking,
- no picnic,
- not easy,
- obfuscated,
- obscure,
- obscured,
- obstinate,
- obstructive,
- onerous,
- operose,
- opposed,
- opposing,
- opposite,
- ornery,
- overtechnical,
- particular,
- pawky,
- pernickety,
- perplexed,
- perplexing,
- persnickety,
- perverse,
- problem,
- problematic,
- problematical,
- profound,
- puzzling,
- queasy,
- recalcitrant,
- recondite,
- refractory,
- rigorous,
- rough,
- rugged,
- scabrous,
- scrambled,
- sensitive,
- set with thorns,
- severe,
- sinister,
- spiny,
- squeamish,
- steep,
- strenuous,
- stressful,
- stubborn,
- stuffy,
- sulky,
- sullen,
- thorny,
- ticklish,
- toilsome,
- tough,
- tricky,
- troubled,
- troublesome,
- troubling,
- troublous,
- trying,
- unaccommodating,
- uncompromising,
- unfavorable,
- unmanageable,
- untoward,
- unyielding,
- uphill,
- wayward,
- wicked,
- wretched,
- wrongheaded