Crossword Dictionary
DIFFICULT
difficult, hard - a
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
ambitious, arduous, burdensome, challenging, crucial, demanding, laborious, onerous, painful, problematic, severe, strenuous, tough, troublesome
Examples
The deaf and the blind find it very difficult to acquire the amenities of conversation.
Directing Connie to the house would be difficult, but Lisa could wait at the end of the drive.
But a commander in chief, especially at a difficult moment, has always before him not one proposal but dozens simultaneously.
Etymology
c. 1400, "not easy, requiring or dependent on effort; troublesome, arduous," apparently an unetymological back-formation from difficulty. French has difficile, Latin difficilis. Of persons, "hard to please," from 1580s. Related: Difficultly.