adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
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Pressure on staff resources also continues to increase, and the goal posts remain as elusive as ever.
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It is hard to pin down something as elusive as a good school climate.
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For it is the personality of Law that has remained as elusive to historians as it was to his own contemporaries.
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Drug dealers can prove just as elusive .
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He's at least five years younger than her and he has an ironic smile as elusive as hers is guileless.
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But Arthur's success remains as elusive as the court of the Faerie Queene.
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Victory for the Allies remained as elusive as ever, despite some 250,000 casualties.
more
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Wet sand can be moulded, whilst dry sand is much more elusive .
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As Christmas drew nearer, sleep became more elusive .
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She was cleverer than either of them, more elusive , more fragile.
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But all attempts to harness and control this most perplexing of natural phenomena have proven far more elusive .
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Indices of success in compliance systems are more elusive for field staff to attain than in sanctioning systems.
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The customers spilled all over the place; the electricity proved more elusive .
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But what she has come up with in Jazz is wilder, more elusive than in any previous work.
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However, we spotted its calf frisking among the trees and it was more elusive .
most
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Organising yourself Of all study skills, perhaps the most elusive is the ability to organise and manage time effectively.
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Culture is the most important yet most elusive dimension of work.
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That, of all people, the most elusive one should suddenly materialise to help her.
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The most elusive culprit remains the built-in contradictions of the capitalist system.
so
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This enabled the establishment of a critical position in relation to science which for Adorno remained so elusive .
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This reflects Warltire's peripatetic way of life, which in turn explains why precise biographical details are so elusive .
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So much so that I think the time has come to discard those tests which have proved so elusive .
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It was the cure that was so elusive .
■ NOUN
quality
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Looking at the might-have-beens of stylistic variation is a way of making the elusive quality of good writing open to inspection.
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They have that elusive quality called narrative momentum.
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He had that elusive quality so distinctive of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.
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This is the elusive quality which record companies look for.
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Thousands of young hopefuls were interviewed but none possessed the elusive qualities Selznick sought.
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The result is a slightly elusive quality which is part of its singular attraction.
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Mary Scott's work has the elusive quality of a childhood memory.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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A cure for the disease has proven to be elusive .
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the elusive key to corporate success
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The fox is a sly elusive animal.
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The gray fox is a very shy elusive creature.
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The team came within one game of the elusive state championship.
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We repeatedly tried to contact the manager, an elusive man who was never in his office.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Even a relatively modest addition to the liberal framework, universal health coverage, remains elusive .
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I can find the Big Dipper, but the North Star can be elusive .
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Most students find that the first job does eventually come along, and even that elusive Equity card is attainable.
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The nature of things was to be elusive .