Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Difficult to find, catch, or achieve: Describing something that is hard to capture, obtain, or pin down.
   • Difficult to remember, define, or describe: Describing something that is hard to grasp mentally, understand clearly, or put into words.
   • Skilfully evasive: Describing a person or thing that is adept at avoiding capture or detection.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The truth about the incident remained elusive. (The truth was difficult to discover or establish.)
  • He is an elusive figure, rarely seen in public. (He is a person who skillfully avoids being seen or caught.)
  • The concept of happiness is elusive and means different things to different people. (The concept is hard to define precisely.)

Advanced Usage

• "Elusive quality": A characteristic that is hard to describe or pinpoint.
  • The painting has an elusive quality that makes it fascinating.
• "Remain elusive": To continue to be difficult to achieve or find.
  • A cure for the disease remains elusive.
• "Prove elusive": To turn out to be difficult to obtain.
  • Success in this field has proven elusive for many.

Variants and Related Words

• Elusively (adverb): In a way that is hard to grasp or achieve.
  • The answer hovered elusively just out of reach.
• Elusiveness (noun): The quality of being elusive.
  • The elusiveness of the suspect frustrated the police.

Synonyms

• Evasive: Tending to avoid commitment or direct answers.
• Slippery: Difficult to catch or hold; evasive.
• Fleeting: Lasting for a very short time; hard to grasp.
• Intangible: Unable to be touched; not solid or real; vague and abstract.

Related Phrases

• Elude capture: To avoid being caught. (This is a related verb phrase using the root verb "elude.")
  • The fugitive managed to elude capture for months.

Related Idioms

• Chase a will-o'-the-wisp: To pursue something that is impossible to catch or achieve. (This idiom describes the act of pursuing something as elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp, a phantom light.)
  • Trying to get a straight answer from him is like chasing a will-o'-the-wisp.

Adjective

1. making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
   • a baffling problem
   • I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast
   • a problematic situation at home
2. difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
   • his whole attitude had undergone a subtle change
   • a subtle difference
   • that elusive thing the soul
3. skillful at eluding capture
   • a cabal of conspirators, each more elusive than the archterrorist- David Kline
4. difficult to describe
   • a haunting elusive odor