Dictionary definition · knotty
adjective
- making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe"a baffling problem"
- used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or knots"gnarled and knotted hands"
- highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious"the Byzantine tax structure"
- tangled in knots or snarls"a mass of knotted string"
Source: Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).