Search the Dictionary

In a convenient manner, form, or situation; without difficulty.

In a possition of great difficulty; brought to bay.

critical moment in a play, when, contrary to expectation, the action is embroiled in new difficulties. Dryden.

That quality of mind which enables one to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without fear, or fainting of heart; valor; boldness; resolution. The king-becoming graces . . . Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, I have no relish of them. Shak. Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man…

modest; -- usually applied to women, sometimes with an implication of coquetry. Coy, and difficult to win. Cowper. Coy and furtive graces. W. Irving. Nor the coy maid, half willings to be pressed, Shall kiss the cup, to pass it to the rest. Goldsmith.

Obscure; difficult; perplexing; trying; as, a crabbed author. "Crabbed eloquence." Chaucer. How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose. Milton.

Crabbed; difficult, or perplexing. "Persius is crabby, because ancient." Marston.

Knotty; difficult. [R.] Care being taken not to add any of the cramp reasons for this opinion. Coleridge.

rushing of a child's head, as with the cranioclast or craniotomy forceps in cases of very difficult delivery. Dunglison.

An instrument for crushing the head of a fetus, to facilitate delivery in difficult eases.

c affection of the muscles of some part of the body, as of the neck or back, rendering it difficult to move the part. To those also that, with a crick or cramp, have thei necks drawn backward. Holland.

ffection of the larynx or trachea, accompanied by a hoarse, ringing cough and stridulous, difficult breathing; esp., such an affection when associated with the development of a false membrane in the air passages (also called membranous croup). See False croup, under False, and Diphtheria.

Anything that is very puzzling or difficult to explain. Dr. Sheridan. The perpetual crux of New Testament chronologists. Strauss.

A powder of a violet red color, difficult to moisten with water, used for making violet or purple dye. It is prepared from certain species of lichen, especially Lecanora tartarea. Ure.

Rendering action or motion difficult or toilsome; serving to obstruct or hinder; burdensome; clogging. He sunk beneath the cumbrous weight. Swift. That cumbrousand unwieldy style which disfigures English composition so extensively. De Quincey.

Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [Obs.] Little curious in her clothes. Fuller. How shall we, If he be curious, work upon his faith Bean &

cut down a frigate into a sloop. -- To cut the knot or the Gordian knot, to dispose of a difficulty summarily; to solve it by prompt, arbitrary action, rather than by skill or patience. -- To cut lots, to determine lots by cuttings cards; to draw lots. -- To cut off. (a) To sever; to separate. I would to God, . . .…

ny disease of the tonsils, throat, or windpipe, attended with inflammation, swelling, and difficulty of breathing and swallowing.

Difficulty; sparingness. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Hard to suit; difficult to please. [Obs.] My wages ben full strait, and eke full small; My lord to me is hard and dangerous. Chaucer.