Hypertext Webster Gateway: "difficult"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Difficult \Dif"fi*cult\, v. t.
To render difficult; to impede; to perplex. [R.] --Sir W.
Temple.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
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.
There is not the strength or courage left me to
venture into the wide, strange, and difficult
world, alone. --Hawthorne.
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}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
difficult
adj 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"; "a difficult child";
"found himself in a difficult situation"; "why is it
so hard for you to keep a secret?" [syn: {hard}] [ant:
{easy}]
2: requiring much effort and trouble; "the mountain climb was
long, steep, and difficult"
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