knotty

Adjective

• tangled in knots or snarls
  • a mass of knotted string
    
  • snarled thread
    

• 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
    

• used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or knots
  • gnarled and knotted hands
    
  • a knobbed stick
    

• 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
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  snarled , snarly , Byzantine , convoluted , involved , tangled , tortuous , gnarled , gnarly , knotted , knobbed , baffling , elusive , problematic , problematical , tough