DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Knot·ty a. [Compar. Knottier superl. Knottiest.]
1. Full of knots; knotted; having many knots; as, knotty timber; a knotty rope.
2. Hard; rugged; as, a knotty head. [R.]
3. Difficult; intricate; perplexed.
A knotty point to which we now proceed --Pope.
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knotty
adj 1: making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve; "a
baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what
to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at
home" [syn: baffling, problematic, problematical]
2: used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or
knots; "gnarled and knotted hands"; "a knobbed stick"
[syn: gnarled, gnarly, knotted, knobbed]
3: highly involved or intricate; "the Byzantine tax structure";
"convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning";
"intricate needlework"; "an intricate labyrinth of refined
phraseology"; "the plot was too involved"; "a knotty
problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering"; "Oh,
what a tangled web we weave"- Sir Walter Scott; "tortuous
legal procedures"; "tortuous negotiations lasting for
months" [syn: Byzantine, convoluted, intricate, involved,
labyrinthine, tangled, tortuous]
[also: knottiest, knottier]