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[ UK /ɪlˈuːsɪv/ ]
[ US /ɪˈɫusɪv/ ]
ADJECTIVE
  1. difficult to describe
    a haunting elusive odor
  2. skillful at eluding capture
    a cabal of conspirators, each more elusive than the archterrorist
  3. difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    a subtle difference
    that elusive thing the soul
    his whole attitude had undergone a subtle change
  4. 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

How To Use elusive In A Sentence

  • Music is too elusive an art to be quantified in this way. Times, Sunday Times
  • Agreement about periodization, however, remains both fraught and elusive. The Times Literary Supplement
  • Wednesday's win was a pleasing, restorative result at a time when it was badly needed, but it would be delusive to read too much into it.
  • Yet the tigers of the Chitwan Valley can be elusive in the absence of propitiation by Tharu priests.
  • Therefore the learning of many languages is injudicious, inasmuch as it arouses the belief in the possession of dexterity, and, as a matter of fact, it lends a kind of delusive importance to social intercourse. Esperanto: Hearings before the Committee on Education
  • Nor did we find our elusive wolf. Times, Sunday Times
  • I think he has something interesting to tell us about political alienation, but he is surprisingly elusive. Times, Sunday Times
  • Even they though are underplayed these days, as hockey seeks to woo that elusive grail - the family audience.
  • In the personal social services, needs are often elusive and intangible, and they are still very controversial. Introduction to Social Administration in Britain
  • He leaned against the wall desperately trying to clear his mind but the memory proved elusive.
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