(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) A controversy; a falling out; a disagreement; an objection; a cavil.
(n.) Embarrassment of affairs, especially financial affairs; -- usually in the plural; as, to be in difficulties.
Example Sentences:
(1) Technical factors that account for increased difficulty in these patients include: problems with guide catheter impaction and ostial trauma; inability to inflate the balloon with adequate guide catheter support; and need for increased intracoronary manipulation.
(2) To overcome this difficulty, a "hetero-antibody" RIA was studied.
(3) Epidemiological studies on low risks involve a number of major methodological difficulties.
(4) Mild swallowing difficulties occurred in 18 patients (39%), moderate dysfunction in 23 (50%), and severe dysfunction in five (11%).
(5) Reasons for non-acceptance do not indicate any major difficulties in the employment of such staff in general practice, at least as far as the patients are concerned.
(6) Spontaneous reports of suspected adverse reactions may be the only way of revealing very rare events but they present great difficulties of rational interpretation.
(7) The indication of the DNA probe method would be considered in the four cases as follows, 1. necessity of the special equipment to isolate the pathogen, 2. necessity of the long period to isolate the pathogen, 3. existence of the cross reaction among the pathogen and relative organisms in the immunological procedure, 4. existence of the difficulty to identify the species of the pathogen by the ordinary procedure.
(8) The 1-0-methylalduronic-acidmethylesters, obtained by the methanolysis of the polysaccharides, are reduced with boronhydrid to the corresponding methyl glycosides; there are split with acid to the aldoses, which are converted in pyridine with hydroxylamine to the aldoximes and than with acetic anhydride to the aldonitrilacetates, which can be separated by gaschromatography without difficulty.
(9) A control experiment demonstrated that changes in general arousal could not account for the effects of task difficulty on neuronal responses.
(10) In the anatomy laboratory we looked for an alternative approach to the glenohumeral joint which would accommodate these difficulties.
(11) A 27-year-old lady presented with history of discomfort in the throat and difficulty in swallowing for two weeks.
(12) Especially in the old patients (over 70 years) the incisional hernias represents an invalidating pathology whose treatment, for the high incidence of associated diseases of respiratory and cardiocirculatory apparatus in the aged, offers difficulties connected both to surgical methods and to the perioperative evaluation and preparation of patients.
(13) Marked pain and great difficulty in introducing the apparatus made its use limited in respectively 15% and 14.5% of cases.
(14) The tasks which appeared to present the most difficulties for the patients were written spelling, pragmatic processing tasks like sentence disambiguation and proverb interpretation.
(15) In favorable cases, tRNA-DNA hybrids of length about 80 nucleotide pairs can be recognized (although with difficulty).
(16) The patient with the right posterior lesion could not recognize handwriting, was prosopagnosic and topographagnosic, but had no difficulty in reading, lipreading, or in recognizing stylized drawings.
(17) A review of the literature summarises the difficulties of diagnosis.
(18) The major difficulty encountered with the current technique is the danger of neurologic injury during the passage and handling of conventional wires, especially in extensive procedures.
(19) However six equivocal studies were observed in profoundly jaundiced patients with bilirubin levels above 400 mumol l-1 due to difficulties in differentiating extrahepatic obstruction from severe intrahepatic cholestasis.
(20) While mindful of the potential difficulties which attend its introduction into the treatment situation there is an attempt to balance this position through a consideration of the appropriate conditions and modes of operation under which a humor-enriched approach may be efficacious.
Toughness
Definition:
(n.) The quality or state of being tough.
Example Sentences:
(1) Photograph: Guardian The research also compiled data covered by a wider definition of tax haven, including onshore jurisdictions such as the US state of Delaware – accused by the Cayman islands of playing "faster and looser" even than offshore jurisdictions – and the Republic of Ireland, which has come under sustained pressure from other EU states to reform its own low-tax, light-tough, regulatory environment.
(2) Nick Robins, head of the Climate Change Centre at HSBC, said: "If you think about low-carbon energy only in terms of carbon, then things look tough [in terms of not using coal].
(3) A series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed the effects of Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect on evoking upset in spouses through condescension (e.g., treating spouse as stupid or inferior), possessiveness (demanding too much time and attention), abuse (slapping spouse), unfaithfulness (having sex with others), inconsiderateness (leaving toilet seat up), moodiness (crying a lot), alcohol abuse (drinking too much alcohol), emotional constriction (hiding emotions to act tough), and self-centeredness (acting selfishly).
(4) A lfred Ekpenyong knows first hand how tough it can be to find a secure foothold in mainstream society after leaving prison.
(5) The texture of a food item can be distinguished in hardness, toughness, stickiness, juiciness and chewability.
(6) Even as the Obama administration moves to deal with some of Guantánamo's most notorious captives, it faces tough challenges to closing the facility.
(7) "It's a tough group but other groups are also tough.
(8) This allowed it to claim that it was becoming more professional, tough minded and responsible.
(9) The austerity programmes administered by western governments in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis were, of course, intended as a remedy, a tough but necessary course of treatment to relieve the symptoms of debts and deficits and to cure recession.
(10) And he pleased the audience with an acknowledgement that social work is a tough job and social workers only human.
(11) Trade unions have sought to highlight the insecurity of workers who have been forced into self-employment in the tough jobs market of recent years.
(12) UK negotiatiors, though, fought back hard -- thus Cameron's fighting talk in his press conference ( see 12.46pm ) 12.49pm BST Open Europe tweets Cameron's tough talk on the rebate: Open Europe (@OpenEurope) Cameron: in Feb we reached a clear deal rebate would remain unchanged, since then some have tried to question this agreement June 28, 2013 Open Europe (@OpenEurope) Cameron: I defeated these attempts to change the rebate, it will remain unchanged for this long term budget June 28, 2013 12.46pm BST David Cameron press conference underway In Brussels, David Cameron is holding his press conference now.
(13) The mechanical properties of compressed beam specimens of microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel pH 101) have been assessed in terms of the tensile strength (sigma t), Young's modulus (E) and the following fracture mechanics parameters: the critical stress intensity factor (KIC), the critical strain energy release rate (GIC) and the fracture toughness (R).
(14) "2013 was a tough year for us both in minerals and in oil and gas," Cochrane said, adding that the group had relied on"self help", including diversification which offset some of the challenges in its core mining market, improving operational efficiency, and strong growth in its after sales business, where orders were up 16% on 2012 and which accounted for 63% of revenues last year.
(15) "We carved out a few chances, but it was tough to break them down."
(16) Channel 5 will be hoping for a similar return for its new series, although with the launch audience around a third down on last year's opener, it may prove a tough ask.
(17) Dimon, the charismatic leader of the bank, had enjoyed a reputation as a tough, strict taskmaster, the kind of CEO every bank should have.
(18) Cameron put all of his betting chips on what seemed to be the party's trump card: the "vote for us, we're tough on migration and tough on migrants" strategy.
(19) As well as limited terms for MPs, Grillo has called for a referendum on the euro and a tough line on immigration.
(20) "It's a tough game but our best football has come in this competition and we'll try and show it next week.