Noah Webster
Difficult
DIFFICULT, adjective [Latin , easy to be made or done; to make or do.]
1. Hard to be made, done or performed; not easy; attended with labor and pains; as, our task is difficult It is difficult to persuade men to abandon vice. It is difficult to ascend a steep hill, or travel a bad road.
2. Hard to be pleased; not easily wrought upon; not readily yielding; not compliant; unaccommodating; rigid; austere; not easily managed or persuaded; as a difficult man; a person of a difficult temper.
3. Hard to be ascended as a hill, traveled as a road, or crossed as a river, etc. We say, a difficult ascent; a difficult road; a difficult river to cross; etc.