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

2. Difficult to make precise.

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

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

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

3. 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.

Related terms

• elude

Derived terms

• elusively
• elusiveness

Translations

evading capture, comprehension or remembrance

• Arabic: متملص‎‎ m (mutamalliṣ), مراوغ‎‎ m (murāwiḡ)
• 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

• Greek: ασύλληπτος (el) (asýlliptos), φευγαλέος (el) (fevgaléos)
• 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

• German: schwierig (de), schwer fassbar, schwer zu beschreiben
• Portuguese: elusivo
• Russian: труднодостижимый (trudnodostižimyj)

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Italian

Adjective

elusive f pl

1. Feminine plural of adjective elusivo.