difficult

Adjective
Synonyms: hardunmanageable

WordNet 3.0

Adjective (2)

  1. 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?”Synonyms: hard
  2. hard to control“a difficult child", "an unmanageable situation”Synonyms: unmanageable
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Webster's Dictionary (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]

Difficult \Dif"fi*cult\, v. t. To render difficult; to impede; to perplex. [R.] --Sir W. Temple. [1913 Webster]
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