elusive

See also: élusive

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈluːsɪv/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /iˈluːsɪv/
• Homophone: illusive

Adjective

elusive (comparative more elusive, superlative most elusive)

1. Evading capture, comprehension or remembrance.

   The elusive criminal was arrested

   • 1910, Jack London, chapter 6, in Lost Face^[1]:

     Charley chased the elusive idea through all the nooks and crannies of his drowning consciousness.

2. Rarely seen.
   • 2002, Scott Roederer, Birding: Rocky Mountain National Park, page 93:

     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.

3. (Can we clean up⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Difficult to describe.

   A precise definition of diarrhea is elusive (Robbin's pathology, 8th ed)

Related terms

• elude

Translations

evading capture, comprehension or remembrance

• Bulgarian: неуловим (bg) (neulovim), изплъзващ се (izplǎzvašt se)
• Czech: nepolapitelný (cs)
• Dutch: ongrijpbaar (nl)
• Esperanto: nekaptebla
• Estonian: puiklik
• Finnish: välttelevä, vaikeasti tavoiteltava, hämärä (fi)
• French: évasif (fr)
• German: flüchtig (de), schwer fassbar

• Italian: elusivo (it) m
• Persian: گریزان‎ (fa), فراری‎ (fa), مرموز‎ (fa) (marmuz)
• Polish: nieuchwytny m
• Portuguese: elusivo, fugidio (pt)
• Romanian: evaziv (ro)
• Russian: неуловимый (ru) (neulovimyj), ускользающий (ru) (uskolʹzajuščij)
• Serbo-Croatian: lukav (sh), prepreden (sh), neuhvatljiv (sh)
• Spanish: elusivo

difficult to describe

• Dutch: moeilijk beschrijfbaar
• Estonian: ebamäärane (et)
• Finnish: vaikeasti kuvailtava

• Portuguese: elusivo
• Russian: труднодостижимый (trudnodostižimyj)

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Italian

Adjective

elusive f pl

1. feminine plural of elusivo