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Resisting ordinary treatment; difficult of fusion, reduction, or the like; -- said especially of metals and the like, which do not readily yield to heat, or to the hammer; as, a refractory ore.

Rumor, whispering an idiot in the ear, who was the representative of Credulity. Addison. Difficulty must cumber this doctrine which supposes that the perfections of God are the representatives to us of whatever we perceive in the creatures. Locke.

The answer of an emperor when formallyconsulted by particular persons on some difficult question; hence, an edict or decree. In their rescripts and other ordinances, the Roman emperors spoke in the plural number. Hare.

The act of analyzing a complex notion, or solving a vexed question or difficult problem. The unraveling and resolution of the difficulties that are met with in the execution of the design are the end of an action. Dryden.

nciples; admitting solution or explanation; as, resolvable compounds; resolvable ideas or difficulties.

So as to resolve or clear up difficulties; clearly. [Obs.] Of that, and all the progress, more or less, Resolvedly more leisure shall express. Shak.

That which clears up and removes difficulties, and makes the mind certain or determined. Bp. Burnet.

o which one resorts orr on which one depends for supply or support; means of overcoming a difficulty; resort; expedient. Threat'nings mixed with prayers, his last resource. Dryden.

Of or pertaining to respiration; as, respirational difficulties.

. It is found in platinum ores, and obtained free as a white inert metal which it is very difficult to fuse. Symbol Rh. Atomic weight 104.1. Specific gravity 12.

sh man stood up to propose a rider. Macaulay. This [question] was a rider which Mab found difficult to answer. A. S. Hardy.

To move or pass with difficulty; as, to rub through woods, as huntsmen; to rub through the world. To rub along or on, to go on with difficulty; as, they manage, with strict economy, to rub along. [Colloq.]

A rattling sound in the throat arising from difficulty of breathing; a rattle. [Obs.]

In a scant manner; with difficulty; scarcely; hardly. [Obs.] Bacon. So weak that he was scant able to go down the stairs. Fuller.

Sparing; niggardly; parsimonius. In illustrating a point of difficulty, be not too scanty of words. I. Watts.

With difficulty; hardly; scantly; barely; but just. With a scarce well-lighted flame. Milton. The eldest scarcely five year was of age. Chaucer. Slowly she sails, and scarcely stems the tides. Dryden. He had scarcely finished, when the laborer arrived who had been sent for my ransom. W. Irwing.

le and embrassing predicament, as it were, a painful rubbing or scraping; a perplexity; a difficulty. The too eager pursuit of this his old enemy through thick and thin has led him into many of these scrapes. Bp. Warburton.

Hesitation as to action from the difficulty of determining what is right or expedient; unwillingness, doubt, or hesitation proceeding from motives of conscience. He was made miserable by the conflict between his tastes and his scruples. Macaulay. To make scruple, to hesitate from conscientious motives; to scruple. Lock…

To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fsten to a spot; hence, to occasion difficulty to; to embarrass; as, to set a coach in the mud. They show how hard they are set in this particular. Addison.

Difficult to be endured; exact; critical; rigorous; as, a severe test.