Definition/Meaning of difficult

• English - Adjective: difficult ( comparative more difficult , superlative most difficult ) Hard , not easy , requiring much effort . Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide , strange , and difficult world , alone . 2008 , Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama (ISBN 0307483762), page 199: In adults , the same kind…
• English - Verb: difficult ( third-person singular simple present difficults , present participle difficulting , simple past and past participle difficulted ) ( obsolete , transitive ) To make difficult; to impede; to perplex . (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir W . Temple to this entry?)
• English - Etymology: From difficulty , from Middle English difficultee , from Old French difficulté , from Latin difficultas , from difficul , older form of difficilis ( “ hard to do , difficult ” ), from dis- + facilis ( “ easy ” ); see difficile .
• English - Pronunciation: ( UK ) IPA (key) : /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/ ( US ) IPA (key) : /ˈdɪfɪˌkʌlt/ , /ˈdɪfɪkl̩t/
• English - External links: difficult in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary , G . & C . Merriam, 1913 difficult in The Century Dictionary , The Century Co ., New York , 1911