Elusive

Definitions: Elusive

Elusive

Adjective

1. Difficult to describe; "a haunting elusive odor".

2. Skillful at eluding capture; "a cabal of conspirators, each more elusive than the archterrorist"- David Kline.

3. Be difficult to detect or grasp by the mind; "his whole attitude had undergone a subtle change"; "a subtle difference"; "that elusive thing the soul".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "elusive" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1762. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Synonyms: Elusive

Avoidance

Adjective: unsought, unattempted; avoiding; Verb: neutral, shy of; (unwilling); elusive, evasive; fugitive, runaway; shy, wild.

Deception

Adjective: deceived; Verb: deceiving; cunning; prestigious, prestigiatory; deceptive, deceptious; deceitful, covinous; delusive, delusory; illusive, illusory; elusive, insidious, ad captandum vulgus.

Nonobservance

Adjective: violating; Verb: lawless, transgressive; elusive, evasive.

Crosswords: Elusive

Without the burden of intellect, emotion or individual identity, these creatures were given something we weren't: the knowledge that they must work together to create the elusive utopia - the perfect society. (The Hellstrom Chronicle; writing credit: David Seltzer)

You're as elusive as Robert Denby! (Riding with Death; writing credit: Leslie Stevens; H.G. Wells)

If it isn't the serious, elusive, Leroy Green. (The Last Dragon; writing credit: Louis Venosta)

That damned elusive Pimpernel! (The Scarlet Pimpernel; writing credit: Richard Carpenter; Baroness Emmuska Orczy)

My own elusive Pimpernel. (The Scarlet Pimpernel; writing credit: William Bast; Baroness Emmuska Orczy)

Your love is elusive ("Ashes By Now"; performing artist: Lee Ann Womack)

I can't be elusive with you Honey ("Honey"; performing artist: Mariah Carey)

The Elusive Pimpernel (1950)

Elusive Isabel (1916)

The Elusive Enemy (1916)

Elusive Song of the Vampire (1987)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• An Elusive Science: The Troubling History of Education Research (reference)

• Elusive Mrs. Pollifax (reference)

• Elusive Pimpernel (reference)

• Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran (reference)

• The Elusive Flame (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• Suzanne Farrell - Elusive Muse (reference)

• The Elusive Pimpernel (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Elusive (reference)

• Elusive Light & Sound 1 (reference)

• Elusive Truth (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Astronomers have made the first unambiguous detection of an elusive type of object known as a ...Credit: NASA.

Seeking the elusive whale for tissue sampling. Small boat work off the DELAWARE II.Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

His destiny was to be elusive of social or religious orders.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Health

Its role is limited to the more elusive incontinence problems. (references)

Although scientists know lipopigment deposits contain fats and proteins, the exact identity of the many molecules inside the deposits has been elusive for many years. (references)

Over the years, experiments from many laboratories have given investigators a detailed picture of the steps between synthesis of APP and its snipping into fragments, but they have never been able to physically identify the elusive enzymes that actually did the clipping. (references)

Economic History

Nigeria

Problems continue, though, for the producers as a solution to the conflict in the Delta region remains elusive. (references)

Ghana

Agriculture dominates the economy (about 36 percent of GDP); sustained growth in the manufacturing sector has been elusive. (references)

Cambodia

Although a considerable quantity of equipment was seized or destroyed, NVA/VC forces proved elusive and moved deeper into Cambodia. (references)

Political Economy

UKRAINE

Basic prerequisites for sustained economic growth such as adherence to the rule of law and respect for market forces remain elusive. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expression using "elusive": elusive reply. Additional references.

Ending with "elusive": ever-elusive.

Albanian

i pakuptueshëm (abstruse, fathomless, illegible, impalpable, impenetrable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, intangible, obscure, thick, unattainable, unclear, unintelligible, unknowable, unmeaning, unsearchable), i pakapshëm (elusory, impalpable, inaccessible, inappreciable, inapprehensible, incomprehensible, intangible, shifty, unreachable), bishtnues (evasive, shirker, slacker). (various references)

Arabic 

‏متملص (dodgy, evasive), ‏متهرب (evader, evasive), ‏مراوغ (deceitful, devious, dodgy, evasive, shifting, shifty, wily). (various references)

Bulgarian 

който се изплъзва, неуловим (evasive, impalpable, imperceptible, inappreciable, intangible, tenuous, volatile). (various references)

Chinese 

逃避 (Elude, Eluded, Eluding, Elusiveness, Eschew, Evade, Evaded, Evading). (various references)

Czech

vyhýbavý (evasive, non committal, noncommittal), prchavý (elusory, ephemeral, fleeting, fragile, fugitive, volatile), nezastižitelný, nepolapitelný. (various references)

Farsi 

فراری (Deserter, Escapee, Evacuee, Refugee, Runaway), کسی که ازدیگران دوری میکند, گریزان (Evasive, Runaway), طفره زن (Evasive). (various references)

French

qui échappe, insaisissable, fuyant, fugitif, évasif (eluding, elusory). (various references)

German

unglaublich (elusively, flabbergasting, incredible, incredibly, indescribable, indescribably, outrageous, phenomenal, unbelievable, unbelievably, what a revelation). (various references)

Greek 

άπιαστοσ (intangible), απατηλόσ (catchy, colorable, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, elusory, fallacious, fraudulent, hollow, illusive, illusory, specious, tricky). (various references)

Hebrew 

מתעלם (evasive, oblivious, unconcerned), מתחמק (dodger, evasive, shirker), חמקמק (slippery), חמק� י (evasive). (various references)

Hungarian

nehezen megfogható, ravasz (acute, artful, astute, be cunning, cagey, cagy, calculating, canny, catchy, colubrine, crafted, crafty, cunning, cute, deep, drafty, draughty, foxy, gimmicky, guileful, insidious, knowing, leery, pawky, shifty, shrewd, slick, slim, sly, to know how many beans make five, trappy, tricksy, tricky, trigger, vulpine, wily), meghatározhatatlan (indefinable, indeterminable, neutral, nondescript, undefinable, undeterminable, unidentifiable). (various references)

Indonesian

mengelak (dodge, elude, elusory, eschew, get out of the way, move to evade). (various references)

Italian

elusivo (elusory), sfuggente (receding), inafferrabile (inaudible, unseizable). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

神出鬼没 (appearing in unexpected places and at unexpected moments, phantom), 捉え所の無い (slippery, subtle), 捉え所のない (slippery, subtle), 捕らえ所の無い (slippery, subtle), 捕らえ所のない (slippery, subtle). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

し�"しゅつきぼつ (appearing in unexpected places and at unexpected moments, phantom), とらえど�"ろのない (slippery, subtle). (various references)

Korean 

도비 (elution). (various references)

Manx

shaghnagh (avoidable, circumventory, evasive, passing, preventable). (various references)

Norwegian

unnvikende (evasive). (various references)

Pig Latin

elusiveay

Portuguese

estratagema (artifice, coup, craftiness, device, feint, fetch, finesse, fraud, maneuver, manoeuvre, ruse, stratagem, subterfuge, trick, trickery, wile), esquivo (slinky), elusivo, ardiloso (artful, astute, captious, clever, cunning, guileful, leery, sly, smart). (various references)

Romanian

evaziv (cagily, circumlocutory, elusory, evasive, evasively), care nu poate fi sesizat. (various references)

Russian 

ускользающий, уклончивый (circumlocutional, evasive, non committal, noncommittal, tortuous). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

nedostižan (bottomless, hard to reach, inaccessible, inscrutable, unapproachable, unattainable, unavailable, uncome-at-able, unequalled, unscalable). (various references)

Spanish

evasivo (evasive, non committal, noncommittal, shuffling), esquivo (backward, disdainful, elusory, evasive, shy, unsociable), elusivo. (various references)

Swedish

gäckande (derisive, derisory, frustration). (various references)

Thai

ยากที่จะหา. (various references)

Turkish

yakalanması zor, kaypak (greasy, lubricous, shifty, sleek, slippery, unctuous, unreliable), kaçamaklı (elusory, evasive, furtively, shuffling), güvenilmez (beyond belief, discredited, elusory, faithless, insecure, irresponsible, precarious, shifty, slippery, suspicious, treacherous, uncertain, unfaithful, unreliable, unsound, unstable, unsteady, untrustable, untrustworthy, whacky), anlaşılmaz (bottomless, clear as mud, complicated, deep, delphic, elusory, fathomless, impenetrable, inapprehensible, inarticulate, incomprehensible, inconceivable, inexplicable, inscrutable, intangible, obscure, occult, opaque, oracular, perplexed, puzzling, recondite, sphinxlike, unaccountable, uncanny, unintelligible, vague, weird), akla gelmeyen. (various references)

Ukranian 

ухильний (evasive, indirect, non committal, tortuous), невловимий (eely, evasive, impalpable, intangible), невиразний (chancy, characterless, dim, expressionless, faint, featureless, foggy, hazy, indecisive, ineffective, inexpressive, milk and water, nebulose, nebulous, neutral, obscure, toneless, weak, wishy washy, woolly, wooly). (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "elusive": elusively, elusiveness, elusivenesses. (additional references)

Words ending with "elusive": delusive, prelusive. (additional references)

Words containing "elusive": delusively, delusiveness, delusivenesses, prelusively. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Elusive" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aalusive, alusive, edusive, elouise, elucive, eludive, eluive, elurive, emulsive, Eusebe, exlusive, ilusiv, Melusine, relusive, seclusive. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: levies.

-2 letters: elves, evils, ileus, lieus, lieve, lives, sieve, veils.

-3 letters: eels, else, eves, evil, isle, lees, leis, lies, lieu, live, lues, luvs, seel, slue, vees, veil, vies, vile, vise.

-4 letters: eel, els, eve, lee, lei, leu, lev, lie, lis, luv, see, sei, sel, sue, use, vee, vie, vis.

-5 letters: el, es, is, li, si, us.

+1 letter: delusive, emulsive, veinules.

+2 letters: elusively, eluviates, exclusive, expulsive, juveniles, prelusive, pulverise, reclusive, repulsive, revulsive, seclusive, veinulets, vesiculae, vestibule.

+3 letters: delusively, effusively, exclusives, preclusive, pulverised, pulverises, pulverizes, suppletive, surveilled, televisual, vesiculate, vestibuled, vestibules, virtueless, virulences, vitelluses.

+4 letters: divulgences, eigenvalues, elusiveness, equivalents, exclusively, excursively, interfluves, misevaluate, outdelivers, prelusively, pulverizers, reclusively, recursively, repulsively, seclusively, seductively, speculative, superlative, supervirile, unbelievers, unloveliest, unselective, vaudevilles, vesiculated, vesiculates, virulencies, vulneraries.

+5 letters: allusiveness, delusiveness, equivalences, exhaustively, illusiveness, juvenilities, lentiviruses, mendeleviums, misevaluated, misevaluates, multiservice, nonexclusive, overindulges, oversupplied, oversupplies, overutilizes, percussively, persuasively, preclusively, recultivates, subjectively, subversively, successively, suggestively, superlatives, surveillance, suspensively, universalize, unloveliness, vermiculites, voicefulness, volunteerism.

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