difficult
[dif-i-kuhlt, -kuhlt]
- not easily or readily done; requiring much labor, skill, or planning to be performed successfully; hard: a difficult job.
- hard to understand or solve: a difficult problem.
- hard to deal with or get on with: a difficult pupil.
- hard to please or satisfy: a difficult employer.
- hard to persuade or induce; stubborn: a difficult old man.
- disadvantageous; trying; hampering: The operation was performed under the most difficult conditions.
- fraught with hardship, especially financial hardship: We saw some difficult times during the depression years.
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Origin of difficult
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
troublesomecrucialtoughproblematicarduousonerousdemandingseverestrenuousambitiousburdensomelaboriouspainfulchallengingcomplexdelicateconfusinggrimintractablegargantuanExamples from the Web for difficult
Contemporary Examples
The choice between freedom and fear is not difficult when seen with perspective.
Although Huckabee's condescending tone - like that of an elementary school history teacher - makes it difficult to take seriously.
White rappers are always difficult to comprehend, difficult to deal with.
Democrats find themselves in the difficult position of defending governments that spend more but do less.
For starters, that religious-themed movies are difficult to make and even more difficult to make successful.
Are You There, God? It’s Nicolas Cage and the Year in Cinematically Pimped ReligionMatthew Paul Turner
December 28, 2014
Historical Examples
But when the morning came he found the task a difficult one to enter upon.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Philippe acquainted her with the joys and griefs of his difficult profession.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
The ablutionary fluid is most difficult to be had in places where water is abundant.
At the moment of parting he began to realize that he had undertaken a difficult task.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
"I think you would find it a difficult undertaking," he said.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
difficult
- not easy to do; requiring efforta difficult job
- not easy to understand or solve; intricatea difficult problem
- hard to deal with; troublesomea difficult child
- not easily convinced, pleased, or satisfieda difficult audience
- full of hardships or trialsdifficult times ahead
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Word Origin
C14: back formation from difficulty
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for difficult
adj.
c.1400, apparently a back-formation from difficulty. French has difficile, Latin difficilis. Of persons, "hard to please," from 1580s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper