adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a thorny issue ( also a vexed issue formal ) (= a difficult one that causes disagreement )
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Illegal immigration is always a thorny issue.
a thorny/knotty problem (= difficult )
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He still faced the thorny problem of finding a way out of the jungle.
a vexed/thorny question (= one that is hard to deal with )
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Finally, there’s the thorny question of money.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
issue
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But the thorny issues that divided the main trading powers at Seattle appear to be largely unresolved.
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Melding the top managements also would be a thorny issue .
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The other thorny issue to be addressed is that of course funding.
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What you can do Handling naughtiness is one of the thornier issues that parents have to face.
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But once again the thorny issue of bolts in West Penwith is raised.
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The thorny issue is rather cutting the workforce-not an easy task for a leftwing party.
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Compensation and betterment proved thorny issues and were not totally resolved until 1948, and then only temporarily.
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Unlike many top executives, he doesn't believe in committing thorny issues to paper.
problem
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None of these struck me as particularly penetrating answers to a thorny problem .
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The ongoing success of his department validated his approach to the thorny problem of appraising individual effectiveness.
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The third text, c, offers more thorny problems .
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With the emergence of a global community, however, thorny problems appear.
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It was left to us alcoholics to sort out the thorny problem .
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Intellectualproperty issues are another thorny problem .
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Witchcraft thus disposes of the thorny problem of the existence of evil.
question
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The three still have to sort out the thorny question of who will run the centre and where it will be.
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Chapter 5 focuses particularly on the thorny question of idealism.
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These are not tremendously forceful answers to the thorny questions posed.
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Moreover, the thorny question of additionality will have to be solved.
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This was the thorny question of what would happen eventually to the reactor's residue of radioactive waste.
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Which just leaves us with the thorny question of prices.
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This is the really thorny question , but only relatively recently has it begun to receive the attention it merits.
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Finally, there's that thorny question of price.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Before me lay a deep gulley choked with oleanders and thorny scrub, which descended precipitously down to the private beach.
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He may touch on several thorny border issues, such as immigration, sewage management and economic development.
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It is here that some of the thorniest decisions arise about choice and independence.
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None of these struck me as particularly penetrating answers to a thorny problem.
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Scritch, scratch, scramble, through the thorny bushes!
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The ongoing success of his department validated his approach to the thorny problem of appraising individual effectiveness.
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The three still have to sort out the thorny question of who will run the centre and where it will be.