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Definition of Elusive
1. Adjective. Difficult to describe. "A haunting elusive odor"
2. Adjective. Skillful at eluding capture. "A cabal of conspirators, each more elusive than the archterrorist"
3. Adjective. Difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze. "That elusive thing the soul"
4. Adjective. Making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe. "A problematic situation at home"
Similar to: Difficult, Hard
Derivative terms: Knottiness, Problem, Problem, Toughness
Definition of Elusive
1. a. Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious.
Definition of Elusive
1. Adjective. evading capture, comprehension or remembrance ¹
2. Adjective. rarely seen ¹
3. Adjective. difficult to describe ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Elusive
1. tending to elude [adj]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Elusive
Literary usage of Elusive
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Art and the Camera: With Forty-nine Illustrations by Antony Guest (1907)
"AN elusive QUALITY Tone is an elusive quality. Indeed, if any one sets himself
to find a categorical answer to the question, What is Tone ? he will probably ..."
2. United States Supreme Court Reports by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, United States Supreme Court (1886)
"elusive presumption is that there was no mistake, and that Price is under no
obligation to pay back what he has received. ..."
3. City Homes on Country Lanes: Philosophy and Practice of the Home-in-a-garden by William Ellsworth Smythe (1921)
"... XVI THE elusive MUSHROOM THE mushroom belongs undeniably to the luxurious
table, and is mentioned here for the sake of making that table complete; ..."
4. A Canyon Voyage: The Narrative of the Second Powell Expedition Down the by Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh (1908)
"... CHAPTER VIII Return of the Major—Some Mormon Friends—No Rations at the elusive
Dirty Devil — Captain Gunnison's Crossing — An All-night Vigil for Cap. ..."
5. Melomaniacs by James Huneker (1902)
"THE QUEST OF THE elusive To Miss Bella Seymour BALAK, November t,. DEAR DARLING
OLD BELLA, — How I wish you were with me. I miss you almost as much as mamma ..."
6. A Concordance to the English Poems of Thomas Gray by Albert Stanburrough Cook, Concordance Society (1908)
"... bow these symptoms befell me? Prop? 95. System. Has from them his system took;
Satire 30. Am. Lines 7. T is hard th' elusive Symptoms to explore: Tabby. ..."
7. Barbizon Days: Millet, Corot, Rousseau, Barye by Charles Sprague Smith (1902)
"It is as elusive as the sunset hues in the clouds, as the dance of light upon
the forest carpet. What sculptor can seize that ? ..."
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