Adjacent Words

Elusive definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ELU'SIVE, a. Practicing elusion; using arts to escape.
Elusive of the bridal day, she gives
Fond hopes to all, and all with hopes deceives.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: difficult to describe; "a haunting elusive odor"
2: skillful at eluding capture; "a cabal of conspirators, each more elusive than the archterrorist"- David Kline
3: difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze; "his whole attitude had undergone a subtle change"; "a subtle difference"; "that elusive thing the soul" [syn: elusive, subtle]
4: making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe; "a baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at home" [syn: baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical, tough]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1719 tending to elude: as a. tending to evade grasp or pursuit <elusive prey> b. hard to comprehend or define <an elusive concept> c. hard to isolate or identify <a haunting elusive aroma> • elusively adverb • elusiveness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 difficult to find or catch; tending to elude. 2 difficult to remember or recall. 3 (of an answer etc.) avoiding the point raised; seeking to elude. Derivatives: elusively adv. elusiveness n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Elusive E*lu"sive, a. Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious. Elusive of the bridal day, she gives Fond hopes to all, and all with hopes deceives. --Pope. -- E*lu"sive*ly, adv. -- E*lu"sive*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something or someone that is elusive is difficult to find, describe, remember, or achieve. In London late-night taxis are elusive and far from cheap. ADJ • elusiveness ...the elusiveness of her character.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Evasive. See elusory. 2. Equivocating, shuffling, equivocatory.

Moby Thesaurus

baffling, cagey, elusory, evanescent, evasive, fleeting, fugitive, impalpable, imponderable, incomprehensible, indefinable, insubstantial, intangible, malingering, mysterious, phantom, shifty, shirking, slippery, transitory, tricky