Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Tending to elude capture, perception, comprehension, or memory.
  • adjective Difficult to define or describe.

from The Century Dictionary.

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

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective evading capture, comprehension or remembrance
  • adjective rarely seen
  • adjective difficult to describe

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
  • adjective skillful at eluding capture
  • adjective making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
  • adjective difficult to describe

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin ēlūsus, past participle of ēlūdere, to elude; see elude.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

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Examples

Comments

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  • 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.

    December 24, 2010

  • Obi-Wan used this word when he had a bad feeling about something.

    June 19, 2012