1. difficult to find, catch, or achieve: "success will become ever more elusive"Similardifficult to catch/finddifficult to track downevasiveslipperyshiftyinformal:always on the movecagey
▪ difficult to remember:"the elusive thought he had had moments before"
Word Originearly 18th century: from Latin elus- ‘eluded’ (from the verb eludere) + -ive.