knotty

Of string or something stringlike: full of, or tied up, in knots.

• Their heads are long, their haire curld, and ſeeming rather wooll, then haire; tis blacke and knotty: […]

Of a part of the body, a tree, etc.: full of knots (knobs or swellings); gnarled, knobbly.

• a knotty pine

Complicated or tricky; complex, difficult.figuratively

• a knotty problem

Of an austere or hard nature; rugged.figuratively

• [A] witte in youth, that is not ouer dulle, heauie, knottie and lumpiſhe, but hard, rough, and though ſomwhat ſtaffiſhe, […] ſuch a witte I ſay, if it be, at the firſt well handled by the mother, and rightlie ſmothed and wrought as it ſhoul
• […] I may erre perhaps in ſoothing my ſelfe that this preſent truth reviv'd, vvill deſerve on all hands to be not ſiniſterly receiv'd, […] but vvith a ſmooth and pleaſing leſſon, vvhich receiv'd hath the vertue to ſoften and diſpell rooted