Elusive means always slipping away just before you catch it. An elusive answer, an elusive suspect, prove elusive.
It is used of animals hard to see, people hard to reach, and ideas hard to pin down — the elusive concept, an elusive memory. Prove elusive is the fixed newspaper phrase for something that could not be found. Note elude, which is the verb; illusion and allusion, which come from the same Latin verb about playing; and that elusive and illusive are different words often confused.
1adjectiveelusiveAlways slipping away just before you catch it.
“Success remained elusive, however hard he worked and however many times he tried.”
synonyms: evasive, hard to pin down
elusive is a quality of evading.
Latin eludere is e- plus ludere, to play — to play away from, to dodge. Illusion, allusion and ludicrous come from the same playing.
Latin
elusus
English, today
elusive
Built from
From Latin elusus, past participle of eludo (“to parry a blow, to deceive”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA