recalcitrant

re·cal·ci·trant

adj \ri-ˈkal-sə-trənt\

Definition of RECALCITRANT

1

: obstinately defiant of authority or restraint

2

a : difficult to manage or operate b : not responsive to treatment c : resistant <this subject is recalcitrant both to observation and to experiment — G. G. Simpson>

— recalcitrant noun

Examples of RECALCITRANT

1. <the manager worried that the recalcitrant employee would try to undermine his authority>
2. <a heart-to-heart talk with the recalcitrant youth revealed that he had a troubled life at home>
3. But Smith managed to rally and to learn, through trial and error, how to milk what he needed out of an often recalcitrant medical system. —Gina Kolata, New York Times Book Review, 7 Sep. 1997
4. For anyone who has ever struggled to extract a recalcitrant cork from a bottle … the value of a good corkscrew is a given. —Ettagale Blauer, Wine Spectator, 31 Oct. 1996
5. George and I were down in a trench hacking at one particularly recalcitrant oak carcass when a local farmer pulled up in his truck. —P. J. O'Rourke, Republican Party Reptile, 1987
6. You are not the kind of person who beats on recalcitrant vending machines. —Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, 1984
7. In November 1891, James Naismith, a 32-year-old Canadian-born instructor at the International Y.M.C.A. Training School in Springfield, was asked to invent an indoor game to help tame the members of a recalcitrant gym class. —Scott Ellsworth, New York Times, 29 May 1994

Origin of RECALCITRANT

Late Latin recalcitrant-, recalcitrans, present participle of recalcitrare to be stubbornly disobedient, from Latin, to kick back, from re- + calcitrare to kick, from calc-, calx heel

First Known Use: 1843

Related to RECALCITRANT

Synonyms: balky, contrary, contumacious, defiant, froward, incompliant, insubordinate, intractable, obstreperous, rebel, rebellious, disobedient, recusant, refractory, restive, ungovernable, unruly, untoward, wayward, willful (or wilful)

Antonyms: amenable, biddable, compliant, conformable, docile, obedient, ruly, submissive, tractable

Related Words: noncooperative, uncooperative; insurgent, mutinous; adamant, adamantine, dogged, hardheaded, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inflexible, mulish, negativistic, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, peevish, pertinacious, pigheaded, rigid, self-willed, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding; fractious, restive, uncontrollable, unmanageable, wild; perverse, resistant, wrongheaded; bad, disorderly, errant, misbehaving, mischievous, monkeying, monkeyish, naughty; undisciplined; dissident, nonconformist; discourteous, disrespectful, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-natured, impertinent, impolite, impudent, inconsiderate, insolent, ornery, rude, uncivil, uncouth, ungracious, unmannerly

Near Antonyms: acquiescent, agreeable, amiable, cooperative, deferential, obliging; yielding; behaved, disciplined, well-bred; courteous, polite, respectful; kowtowing, obsequious, servile, slavish, subservient; decorous, mannerly, orderly, proper; controllable, governable, manageable, trainable

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See Synonym Discussion at unruly