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.
&fist; 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.
Dif"fi*cult, v. t. To render
difficult; to impede; to perplex. [R.] Sir W.
Temple.
