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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Difficulty \Dif"fi*cul*ty\, noun; 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.
Not being able to promote them [the interests of life] on account of the difficulty of the region. --James Byrne.
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.
They lie under some difficulties by reason of the emperor's displeasure. --Addison.
3. A controversy; a falling out; a disagreement; an objection; a cavil.
Measures for terminating all local difficulties. --Bancroft.
4. Embarrassment of affairs, especially financial affairs; -- usually in the plural; as, to be in difficulties.
In days of difficulty and pressure. --Tennyson.
Syn: Impediment; obstacle; obstruction; embarrassment; perplexity; exigency; distress; trouble; trial; objection; cavil. See {Impediment}.
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
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