elusive

They must make assumptions not only about the virus’s biology, which remains far from fully understood, but about human behavior, which can be even more slippery and elusive.

However, establishing a causal relation between approaches to phonics instruction and gains in real reading has been more elusive.

Huckabee will also need to establish a reliable fundraising base, something that up until now has proved to be elusive.

As far as finally being acknowledged herself with that elusive Academy gold, well, Moore says she would not take it for granted.

There will be a lot of talk about “sustainable” development, but so far that has been elusive.

But the deliverance and liberation that has been longed for by Jews and Christians has proven to be an elusive thing.

They are an elusive bunch, in motion or in the thrall of another time.

That suddenly altered tone had awakened an elusive memory, but neither of them could succeed in identifying it.

Its elusive light lay upon the slope, but ledge and stone seemed less distinct than their shadows, which were black as ebony.

A faintly embarrassing situation this, even for an ancestor of the elusive Pimpernel.

The look in her face was quizzical, yet there was a strange, elusive gravity in her eyes, an almost pathetic appealing.

Yet the real difficulty is still before an author: it is to decide what stamp to put upon such elusive matter as ideas.