Topic Thesaurus
Roget's Thesaurus

Difficulty

Nouns
  • difficulty
  • hardness etc. adj.
  • impracticability etc. (impossibility) Impossibility
  • tough work, hard work, uphill work
  • hard task, Herculean task, Augean task
  • task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift. dilemma, embarrassment
  • deadlock
  • perplexity etc. (uncertainty) Uncertainty
  • intricacy
  • entanglement, complexity etc. [Absence, or want of Order, etc.] Disorder
  • cross fire
  • awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, net, meshes, maze
  • coil etc. (convolution) [Complex curvature.] Convolution
  • crooked path
  • involvement. nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point
  • vexed question, poser
  • puzzle etc. (riddle) Secret
  • paradox
  • hard nut to crack, nut to crack
  • bone to pick, crux, where the shoe pinches. nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt
  • critical situation, crisis
  • trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble. scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest
  • sea of troubles, peck of troubles
  • pretty kettle of fish
  • pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado
  • false position. set fast, stand, standstill
  • deadlock, dead set. fix, horns of a dilemma
  • hitch
  • stumbling block etc. (hindrance) Hindrance. [difficult person] crab
  • curmudgeon.
Verbs
  • be difficult etc. adj.
  • run one hard, go against the grain, try one's patience, put one out
  • put to one's shifts, put to one's wit's end
  • go hard with one, try one
  • pose, perplex etc. (uncertain) Uncertainty
  • bother, nonplus, gravel, bring to a deadlock
  • be impossible etc. Impossibility
  • be in the way of etc. (hinder) Hindrance. meet with difficulties
  • labor under difficulties
  • get into difficulties
  • plunge into difficulties
  • struggle with difficulties
  • contend with difficulties
  • grapple with difficulties
  • labor under a disadvantage
  • be in difficulty etc. adj.. fish in troubled waters, buffet the waves, swim against the stream, scud under bare poles. Have much ado with, have a hard time of it
  • come to the push, come to the pinch
  • bear the brunt. grope in the dark, lose one's way, weave a tangled web, walk among eggs. get into a scrape etc. n.
  • bring a hornet's nest about one's ears
  • be put to one's shifts
  • flounder, boggle, struggle
  • not know which way to turn etc. (uncertain) Uncertainty
  • stick at, stick in the mud, stick fast
  • come to a stand, come to a standstill, come to a deadlock
  • hold the wolf by the ears, hold the tiger by the tail. render difficult etc. adj.
  • enmesh, encumber, embarrass, ravel, entangle
  • put a spoke in the wheel etc. (hinder) Hindrance
  • lead a pretty dance.
Adjectives
  • difficult, not easy, hard, tough
  • troublesome, toilsome, irksome
  • operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable
  • sooner said than done
  • more easily said than done, easier said than done. difficult to deal with, hard to deal with
  • ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby
  • not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water. awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable
  • intractable, stubborn etc. (obstinate) Obstinacy
  • perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged
  • knotted, knotty
  • invious
  • pathless, trackless
  • labyrinthine etc. (convoluted) [Complex curvature.] Convolution
  • intricate, complicated etc. (tangled) [Absence, or want of Order, etc.] Disorder
  • impracticable etc. (impossible) Impossibility
  • not feasible etc. Possibility
  • desperate etc. (hopeless) [Absence, want or loss of hope.] Hopelessness. embarrassing, perplexing etc. (uncertain) Uncertainty
  • delicate, ticklish, critical
  • beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties. under a difficulty
  • in a box
  • in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape etc. n., in deep water, in a fine pickle
  • in extremis
  • between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis
  • surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands
  • at cross purposes
  • not out of the wood. reduced to straits
  • hard pressed, sorely pressed
  • run hard
  • pinched, put to it, straitened
  • hard up, hard put to it, hard set
  • put to one's shifts
  • puzzled, at a loss, c. (uncertain) Uncertainty
  • at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill
  • graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground
  • stuck fast, set fast
  • up a tree, at bay, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall
  • au bout de son Latin
  • out of one's depth
  • thrown out. accomplished with difficulty
  • hard-fought, hard-earned.
Adverbs
  • with difficulty, with much ado
  • barely, hardly etc. adj.
  • uphill
  • against the stream, against the grain
  • in the teeth of
  • at a pinch, upon a pinch
  • at long odds, against long odds.
Phrases
  • ay there's the rub" [Hamlet]
  • things are come to a pretty pass