knotty meaning and definition

KNOTTY adjective

Definition of knotty (adjective)

1. making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
   • "a baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at home"
   • synonyms: baffling, elusive, problematic, problematical, tough
2. used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or knots
   • "gnarled and knotted hands"; "a knobbed stick"
   • synonyms: gnarled, gnarly, knobbed, knotted
3. highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious
   • "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"
   • synonyms: Byzantine, convoluted, involved, tangled, tortuous
4. tangled in knots or snarls
   • "a mass of knotted string"; "snarled thread"
   • synonyms: snarled, snarly