elusive

adjectiveattested in dialogue

United Kingdom//ɪˈl(j)uː.sɪv//
United Kingdom//iˈl(j)uː.sɪv//
United Kingdom//ɪˈl(j)uː.zɪv//
United Kingdom//iˈl(j)uː.zɪv//
United States//ɪˈl(j)u.sɪv//

Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.

adjective

1
Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.
The elusive criminal was arrested
The temporary elusive goal / To reach the solace, to feed once more upon the synthetic reaper of loss / No matter the outcome, the cost
2
Difficult to make precise.
A precise definition of diarrhea is elusive
Charley chased the elusive idea through all the nooks and crannies of his drowning consciousness.
3
Rarely seen.
While you're sniffing the trunks of the ponderosas to see if they're butterscotch, vanilla, strawberry, or the elusive chocolate variety, watch for Brown Creepers, an elusive variety of bird.

Etymology

From Latin elusus, past participle of eludo (“to parry a blow, to deceive”).

Forms

comparative: more elusive
superlative: most elusive

elsewhere · Synonym of somewhere else: in, at, or to some other place.Elsie · A female given name from Hebrew.Elton · A male given name from Old English.

elusive · Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.

Elvira · A female given name from Spanish, in quiet use since the 19th…Elvis · A male given name.em · The name of the Latin script letter M/m.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.