fire; awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus[Lat], net, meshes, maze; coil &c. (convolution) 248; crooked path; involvement.
     nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point; vexed
question, vexata quaestio[Lat], poser; puzzle &c. (riddle) 533; paradox; hard nut to crack, nut to crack; bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum[Lat], where the shoe pinches.
     nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt;
critical situation, crisis; trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble.
     scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet’s nest; sea of
troubles, peck of troubles; pretty kettle of fish; pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado; false position.
     set fast, stand, standstill; deadlock, dead set.
     fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac[Fr]; hitch; stumbling block &c
(hindrance) 706.
     [difficult person] crab; curmudgeon. 
     V. be difficult &c. adj.; run one hard, go against the grain, try
one’s patience, put one out; put to one’s shifts, put to one’s wit’s end; go hard with one, try one; pose, perplex &c. (uncertain) 475; bother, nonplus, gravel, bring to a deadlock; be impossible &c. 471; be in the way of &c (hinder) 706.
     meet with difficulties; labor under difficulties; get into
difficulties; plunge into difficulties; struggle with difficulties; contend with difficulties; grapple with difficulties; labor under a disadvantage; be in difficulty &c. adj.
     fish in troubled waters, buffet the waves, swim against the stream,
scud under bare poles. 
     Have much ado with, have a hard time of it; come to the push, come to
the pinch; bear the brunt.
     grope in the dark, lose one’s way, weave a tangled web, walk among
eggs.
     get into a scrape &c. n.; bring a hornet’s nest about one’s ears; be
put to one’s shifts; flounder, boggle, struggle; not know which way to turn &c. (uncertain) 475; perdre son Latin[Fr]; stick at, stick in the mud, stick fast; come to a stand, come to a standstill, come to a deadlock; hold the wolf by the ears, hold the tiger by the tail.
     render difficult &c. adj.; enmesh, encumber, embarrass, ravel,
entangle; put a spoke in the wheel &c. (hinder) 706; lead a pretty dance. 
     Adj. difficult, not easy, hard, tough; troublesome, toilsome, irksome;
operose[obs3], laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable; sooner said than done; more easily said than done, easier said than done.
     [pertaining to person’s disposition sensu 802] difficult to deal with,
hard to deal with; ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby; not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water.
     awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable; intractable, stubborn &c. (obstinate)
606; perverse, refractory, plaguy[obs3], trying, thorny, rugged; knotted, knotty; invious|; pathless, trackless; labyrinthine &c (convoluted) 248; intricate, complicated