quite tricky
1
5.1
- adjective
:
bastante complicado
- The puzzle was quite tricky, requiring several hours to solve.
It's just a bunch of relatively simple components that get quite tricky to do together.
- It's just a bunch of relatively simple components that get quite tricky to do together.
- And, you know, sometimes working through that from personal experience can be quite tricky.
- So trying to understand these structures and how they work in these environments is really quite tricky.
- Is there something like this that's locked and now we don't know and this seems quite tricky.
Examples
-
It can be quite tricky landing at Darwin, sometimes with a severe inversion a few meters above ground.
Blog text (22) -
Lack of hard numbers makes it quite tricky, but it's not impossible to estimate the size of self-publishing.
Blog text (2) -
And depending on what you design, they can be, you know, quite tricky.
Blog text (12) -
It's just a bunch of relatively simple components that get quite tricky to do together.
-
But other questions can get quite tricky and tangled, as you might imagine.
Blog text (14) -
Conditions were quite tricky this morning as the track was very dusty, slippery, and cold, which made it hard to drive.
Blog text (33) -
Since GPUs don't run the same code as a CPU, these last two are quite tricky to implement, but they are the most valuable to the user.
Blog text (20) -
Exposures for the Aurora are quite tricky because your ultimate goal is to capture the Aurora undulation.
Academic text (2010) -
Learning to ride a bicycle can be quite tricky if you've never done it before.
-
Navigating the city can be quite tricky for first-time visitors due to the complex road system.
Synonyms
∞
1.1
Needing a lot of effort and often strict or severe
∞
1.6
Not easy to do or understand
∞
2.6
Hard to do or understand and needing a lot of effort
876
5.4
Difficult to understand or deal with because it has many connected parts
648
5.6
Not simple because it has many connected parts
276
3.2
Hard to understand and makes people feel unsure
214
3.9
Difficult to do because it has hidden problems
183
4.4
Hard to do and needing a lot of effort
133
5.6
Hard to deal with and often not clear
75
5.1
Very difficult to deal with or solve
73
6.7
Having many small parts or details that are hard to understand
52
7.0
Hard to understand or describe, like the meaning of a symbol
49
3.9
Causing worry or annoyance and hard to deal with
29
7.7
Very difficult to do and needing a lot of effort over a long time
22
8.7
Hard to manage, change, or control
16
6.6
Complicated and hard to understand
9
6.4
Difficult to understand
7
8.1
Full of twists and turns, like a winding road or an argument
4
6.8
Very complicated and hard to follow, like rules or relationships
2
7.9
Hard to do because it has small, delicate parts
2
8.1
Hard to understand or deal with
1
8.1
Difficult to solve or understand, often about problems
1
8.6
Very difficult to solve, cleverly made to confuse people
1
6.2
More complex than it needs to be
Very hard to understand because it is complicated
Extremely difficult problem that seems impossible to solve, like a tangled knot
Antonyms
How Difficult
133
7.0
183
4.4
1
5.1
214
3.9
∞
1.0
99
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'fairly difficult or complicated' is directly and compositionally derived from 'quite' as a degree adverb modifying 'tricky' (an adjective meaning hard to handle). This adverb+adjective pattern is highly productive and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Quite tricky may come from a simple picture of a task that is full of little tricks or traps that can surprise you. So, when something is quite tricky, it is 'fairly difficult' and needs care.