a. [ From Difficulty. ] 1. Hard to do or to make; beset with difficulty; attended with labor, trouble, or pains; not easy; arduous. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange, and difficult world, alone. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To render difficult; to impede; to perplex. [ R. ] Sir W. Temple. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To render difficult; to difficilitate. [ Obs. ] Cotgrave. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. With difficulty. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Difficulty. [ R. ] Golding. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Difficulties [ L. difficultas, fr. difficilis difficult; dif- = dis- + facilis easy: cf. F. difficulté. See Facile. ] 1. The state of being difficult, or hard to do; hardness; arduousness; -- opposed to easiness or facility; as, the difficulty of a task or enterprise; a work of difficulty. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not being able to promote them [ the interests of life ] on account of the difficulty of the region. James Byrne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Something difficult; a thing hard to do or to understand; that which occasions labor or perplexity, and requires skill and perseverance to overcome, solve, or achieve; a hard enterprise; an obstacle; an impediment; as, the difficulties of a science; difficulties in theology. [ 1913 Webster ]

They lie under some difficulties by reason of the emperor's displeasure. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A controversy; a falling out; a disagreement; an objection; a cavil. [ 1913 Webster ]

Measures for terminating all local difficulties. Bancroft. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Embarrassment of affairs, especially financial affairs; -- usually in the plural; as, to be in difficulties. [ 1913 Webster ]

In days of difficulty and pressure. Tennyson.

Syn. -- Impediment; obstacle; obstruction; embarrassment; perplexity; exigency; distress; trouble; trial; objection; cavil. See Impediment. [ 1913 Webster ]