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Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem. The hard causes they brought unto Moses. Ex. xviii. 26. In which are some things hard to be understood. 2 Peter iii. 16.

In a hard or difficult manner; with difficulty. Recovering hardly what he lost before. Dryden.

To harass by exacting unnecessary, disagreeable, or difficult work.

To make an effort to raise, throw, or move anything; to strain to do something difficult. The Church of England had struggled and heaved at a reformation ever since Wyclif's days. Atterbury.

A disease of horses, characterized by difficult breathing, with heaving of the flank, wheezing, flatulency, and a peculiar cough; broken wind.

As if burdened with a great weight; slowly and laboriously; with difficulty; hence, in a slow, difficult, or suffering manner; sorrowfully. And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily. Ex. xiv. 25. Why looks your grace so heavily to-day Shak.

e; heavy business transactions, etc.; often implying strength; as, a heavy barrier; also, difficult to move; as, a heavy draught.

help on, to forward; to promote by aid. -- To help out, to aid, as in delivering from a difficulty, or to aid in completing a design or task. The god of learning and of light Would want a god himself to help him out. Swift. -- To help over, to enable to surmount; as, to help one over an obstacle. -- To help to, to s…

Requiring the strength of Hercules; hence, very great, difficult, or dangerous; as, an Herculean task.

Very abstract; difficult to comprehend or surmount; grand; noble. Both meet to hear and answer such high things. Shak. Plain living and high thinking are no more. Wordsworth.

Difficulty; perplexity; embarrassment. Waterton.

nvent or monastery which is also a place of refuge or entertainment for travelers on some difficult road or pass, as in the Alps; as, the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard.

, being drawn from the hot well by the feed pump. -- In hot water (Fig.), in trouble; in difficulties. [Colloq.]

he height of a wagon-wheel hub. -- Up to the hub, as far as possible in embarrassment or difficulty, or in business, like a wheel sunk in mire; deeply involved. [Colloq.]

which the chief symptoms are, a sense of dryness and construction in the throat, causing difficulty in deglutition, and a marked heightening of reflex excitability, producing convulsions whenever the patient attempts to swallow, or is disturbed in any way, as by the sight or sound of water; rabies; canine madness. [Wr…

The quality of being impossible; impracticability. They confound difficulty with impossibility. South.

existing, etc.; unattainable in the nature of things, or by means at command; insuperably difficult under the circumstances; absurd or impracticable; not feasible. With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Matt. xix. 26. Without faith it is impossible to please him. Heb. xi. 6. Impossible quant…

ng easily dealt with; -- used in a general sense, as applied to a person or thing that is difficult to control or get along with. This though, impracticable heart Is governed by a dainty-fingered girl. Rowe. Patriotic butloyal men went away disguested afresh with the impracticable arrogance of a sovereign. Palfrey.…

With reference to circumstances or conditions; as, he is in difficulties; she stood in a blaze of light. "Fettered in amorous chains." Shak. Wrapt in sweet sounds, as in bright veils. Shelley.

asiness; disadvantage; anything that disturbs quiet, impedes prosperity, or increases the difficulty of action or success; as, one inconvenience of life is poverty. A place upon the top of Mount Athos above all clouds of rain, or other inconvenience. Sir W. Raleigh. Man is liable to a great many inconveniences. Tillots…