knotty Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
    tough; problematic; elusive; baffling; problematical.
    • a baffling problem
    • I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast
    • a problematic situation at home
  2. adjective satellite used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or knots
    gnarly; gnarled; knotted; knobbed.
    • gnarled and knotted hands
    • a knobbed stick
  3. adjective satellite highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
    Byzantine; tortuous; tangled; convoluted; involved.
    • the Byzantine tax structure
    • Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship
    • convoluted legal language
    • convoluted reasoning
    • the plot was too involved
    • a knotty problem
    • got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering
    • Oh, what a tangled web we weave"- Sir Walter Scott
    • tortuous legal procedures
    • tortuous negotiations lasting for months
  4. adjective satellite tangled in knots or snarls
    snarly; snarled.
    • a mass of knotted string
    • snarled thread

WordNet

Knot"ty adjective
Wordforms
comparative Knottier ; superlative Knottiest
Definitions
  1. Full of knots; knotted; having many knots; as, knotty timber; a knotty rope.
  2. Hard; rugged; as, a knotty head.R. Rewe.
  3. Difficult; intricate; perplexed.
    A knotty point to which we now proceed Pope.

Webster 1913