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  1. elusive love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Tending to elude capture, perception, comprehension, or memory: "an invisible cabal of conspirators, each more elusive than the archterrorist [himself] ( David Kline).
  2. adj. Difficult to define or describe: "Failures are more finely etched in our minds than triumphs, and success is an elusive, if not mythic, goal in our demanding society” ( Hugh Drummond).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Eluding, or having a tendency to elude; hard to grasp or confine; slippery.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. evading capture, comprehension or remembrance
  2. adj. rarely seen
  3. adj. difficult to describe

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Tending to elude; using arts or deception to escape; adroitly escaping or evading; eluding the grasp; fallacious.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
  2. adj. skillful at eluding capture
  3. adj. making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
  4. adj. difficult to describe

Etymologies

  1. From Latin elusus past participle of eludo ("to parry a blow, to deceive") (Wiktionary)
  2. From Latin ēlūsus, past participle of ēlūdere, to elude; see elude. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • dailyword Obi-Wan used this word when he had a bad feeling about something. Jun 19, 2012

  • Kristianto2010 Wars continue to ravage innocent lives, domestic violence is a growing calamity, divorce rates soar, churches split, and peace in our restless and wayward hearts seems to be an elusive dream.
    Dec 24, 2010

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‘elusive’ has been looked up 5396 times, loved by 21 people, added to 112 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.