&c (tangled) 59; impracticable &c. (impossible) 471; not feasible &c. 470; desperate &c. (hopeless) 859.
     embarrassing, perplexing &c. (uncertain) 475; delicate, ticklish,
critical; beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties.
     under a difficulty; in a box; in difficulty, in hot water, in the
suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape &c.n., in deep water, in a fine pickle; in extremis; between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis; surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands; at cross purposes; not out of the wood.
     reduced to straits; hard pressed, sorely pressed; run hard; pinched,
put to it, straitened; hard up, hard put to it, hard set; put to one’s shifts; puzzled, at a loss, &c (uncertain) 475; at the end of one’s tether, at the end of one’s rope, at one’s wit’s end, at a nonplus, at a standstill; graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground; stuck fast, set fast; up a tree, at bay, aux abois[Fr], driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one’s wit’s end, driven to the wall; au bout de son Latin; out of one’s depth; thrown out.
     accomplished with difficulty; hard-fought, hard-earned. 
     Adv. with difficulty, with much ado; barely, hardly &c. adj.; uphill;
against the stream, against the grain; d rebours[Fr]; invita Minerva[Lat]; in the teeth of; at a pinch, upon a pinch; at long odds, against long odds. 
     Phr. “ay there’s the rub” [Hamlet]; hic labor hoc opus [Lat][Vergil];
things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti[Lat]; ad astra per aspera[Lat]; acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire[Fr].

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     #705.  Facility. —­ N. facility, ease; easiness &c. adj.; capability;
feasibility &c. (practicability) 470; flexibility, pliancy &c. 324; smoothness &c. 255.
     plain sailing, smooth sailing, straight sailing; mere child’s play,
holiday task; cinch [U.S.].
     smooth water, fair wind; smooth royal road; clear coast, clear stage;
tabula rasa[Lat]; full play &c. (freedom) 748.
     disencumbrance[obs3], disentanglement; deoppilation|!; permission &c.
760.
     simplicity, lack of complication. 
     V. be easy &c. adj.; go on smoothly, run smoothly; have full play &c.
n.; go on all fours, run on all fours; obey the helm, work well.
     flow with the stream, swim with the stream, drift with the stream, go
with the stream, flow with the tide, drift with the tide; see one’s way; have all one’s own way, have the game in one’s own hands; walk over the course, win at a canter; make light of, make nothing of, make no bones of.
     be at home in, make it look easy, do it with one’s eyes closed, do it
in one’s sleep &c. (skillful) 698.
     render easy &c. adj.; facilitate, smooth, ease; popularize; lighten,