elusive — OET

elusive

adjective

1 he tried to reach her by telephone, but she continued to be elusive:

difficult to catch/find, difficult to track down;

evasive, slippery, shifty;

informal always on the move, cagey.

2 the notion of meaning is exceedingly elusive and complex:

subtle, indistinct, indefinite, ambiguous, indefinable, intangible, impalpable, unanalysable, fugitive, deceptive, baffling.

▷antonyms clear.

3 as usual she gave an elusive answer:

ambiguous, baffling, puzzling, misleading, evasive, equivocal, deceptive;

rare elusory.

elusive Oxford Dictionary of English