Difficulties

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Difficulty \Dif"fi*cul*ty\, n.; pl. {Difficulties}. [L.
     difficultas, fr. difficilis difficult; dif- = dis- + facilis
     easy: cf. F. difficult['e]. See {Facile}.]
     1. The state of being difficult, or hard to do; hardness;
        arduousness; -- opposed to {easiness} or {facility}; as,
        the difficulty of a task or enterprise; a work of


        difficulty.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Not being able to promote them [the interests of
              life] on account of the difficulty of the region.
                                                    --James Byrne.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Something difficult; a thing hard to do or to understand;
        that which occasions labor or perplexity, and requires
        skill and perseverance to overcome, solve, or achieve; a
        hard enterprise; an obstacle; an impediment; as, the
        difficulties of a science; difficulties in theology.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              They lie under some difficulties by reason of the
              emperor's displeasure.                --Addison.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. A controversy; a falling out; a disagreement; an
        objection; a cavil.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Measures for terminating all local difficulties.
                                                    --Bancroft.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Embarrassment of affairs, especially financial affairs; --
        usually in the plural; as, to be in difficulties.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In days of difficulty and pressure.   --Tennyson.
  
     Syn: Impediment; obstacle; obstruction; embarrassment;
          perplexity; exigency; distress; trouble; trial;
          objection; cavil. See {Impediment}.
          [1913 Webster]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  50 Moby Thesaurus words for "difficulties":
     adverse circumstances, adversity, affliction, aggravation,
     annoyance, blight, broken fortune, bummer, care, cross, curse,
     difficulty, distress, downer, embarrassment, genteel poverty,
     hard knocks, hard life, hard lot, hard pinch, hardcase, hardship,
     impecuniosity, impecuniousness, insolvency, irritation,
     light purse, narrow means, plight, poorness, poverty, predicament,
     pressure, rigor, sea of troubles, slender means,
     straitened circumstances, straits, stress, stress of life,
     tight squeeze, trial, tribulation, trouble, troubles,
     unprosperousness, vale of tears, vicissitude, voluntary poverty,
     vows of poverty