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The qualifies which prompt one to undertake difficult and dangerous exploits. I love thy courage yet and bolt emprise; But here thy sword can do thee little stead. Milton.

mpasses a city; a voyage encompassing the world. Shak. A question may be encompassed with difficulty. C. J. Smith. The love of all thy sons encompass thee. Tennyson.

counter a friend in traveling; two armies encounter each other; to encounter obstacles or difficulties, to encounter strong evidence of a truth. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. Acts xvii. 18. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to encounter you. Shak.…

That which encumbers; a burden which impedes action, or renders it difficult and laborious; a clog; an impediment. See Incumbrance.

anger or peril; to expose to loss or injury; as, to endanger life or peace. All the other difficulties of his reign only exercised without endangering him. Burke.

mmonly in the singular; as, we have met the enemy and he is ours or they are ours. It was difficult in such a country to track the enemy. It was impossible to drive him to bay. Macaulay.

s; to draw on. Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage. Pope. Taking upon himself the difficult task of engaging him in conversation. Hawthorne.

The act or operation of clearing of knots, or of untying; hence, also, the solution of a difficulty. [R.] Bailey.

To involve in such complications as to render extrication a bewildering difficulty; hence, metaphorically, to insnare; to perplex; to bewilder; to puzzle; as, to entangle the feet in a net, or in briers. "Entangling alliances." Washington. The difficulties that perplex men's thoughts and entangle their understandings.…

To undertake an enterprise, or something hazardous or difficult. [R.] Pope.

beginning, or that with which the beginning is made; the commencement; initiation; as, a difficult entrance into business. "Beware of entrance to a quarrel." Shak. St. Augustine, in the entrance of one of his discourses, makes a kind of apology. Hakewill.

o catch in a trap; to insnare; hence, to catch, as in a trap, by artifices; to involve in difficulties or distresses; to catch or involve in contradictions; as, to be entrapped by the devices of evil men. A golden mesh, to entrap the hearts of men. Shak.

ured and in a glorious epiphany upon the mount. Jer. Taylor. An epic poet, if ever such a difficult birth should make its epiphany in Paris. De Quincey.

e of the piece, that men estimate commodities and exchange them. Locke. It is always very difficult to estimate the age in which you are living. J. C. Shairp.

perform, as a piece of music, either on an instrument or with the voice; as, to execute a difficult part brilliantly.

strate the meaning of; as, to explain a chapter of the Bible. Commentators to explain the difficult passages to you. Gay. To explain away, to get rid of by explanation. "Those explain the meaning quite "away." Pope.

To unfold the meaning or sense of; to explain; to clear of difficulties or obscurity; to interpret. The last verse of his last satire is not yet sufficiently explicated. Dryden.

a proportion or series. In the extreme as much as possible. "The position of the Port was difficult in the extreme." J. P. Peters.

To free, as from difficulties or perplexities; to disentangle; to disembarrass; as, to extricate a person from debt, peril, etc. We had now extricated ourselves from the various labyrinths and defiles. Eustance.

Easy to be done or performed: not difficult; performable or attainable with little labor. Order . . . will render the work facile and delightful. Evelyn.