obdurate

obdurate

adjective

Definition of OBDURATE

1

having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings <the obdurate refusal of the crotchety old man to let the neighborhood kids retrieve their stray ball from his backyard>

Synonyms affectless, callous, case-hardened, cold-blooded, compassionless, desensitized, hard-boiled, hard-hearted, heartless, indurate, inhuman, inhumane, insensate, insensitive, ironhearted, merciless, obdurate, pachydermatous, pitiless, remorseless, ruthless, slash-and-burn, soulless, stony (also stoney), stonyhearted, take-no-prisoners, thick-skinned, uncharitable, unfeeling, unmerciful, unsparing, unsympathetic

Related Words boorish, heedless, inconsiderate, thoughtless, uncaring, unfriendly, unloving, unthinking; grim, hard-bitten, harsh, heavy-handed, ironfisted, ironhanded, jackbooted, knock-down, drag-out (or knock-down-and-drag-out), oppressive, rough, rough-and-tumble, severe, sledgehammer, stern, tough, ungentle; abusive, acrimonious, disagreeable, hateful, ill-natured, ill-tempered, malevolent, malicious, mean, rancorous, spiteful, surly, virulent; barbarous, bestial, brutal, brutish, cruel, evil-minded, savage, vicious; austere, cold, frosty

Near Antonyms benevolent, benignant, gentle, kind; clement, indulgent, lenient, mild; cordial, friendly, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious; tolerant, understanding; affectionate, fond, loving

Antonyms charitable, compassionate, humane, kindhearted, kindly, merciful, sensitive, softhearted, sympathetic, tender, tenderhearted, warm, warmhearted

2

sticking to an opinion, purpose, or course of action in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion <an obdurate farmer who could never be convinced to try a different method of fertilization>

Synonyms adamant, adamantine, bullheaded, dogged, hard, hardened, hardheaded, hard-nosed, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inconvincible, inflexible, intransigent, mulish, obdurate, opinionated, ossified, pat, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, self-opinionated, self-willed, stiff-necked, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful)

Related Words anal-retentive, obsessive; wayward, wrongheaded; determined, hell-bent, inexorable, persistent, relentless, resolved, set, single-minded, steadfast, stouthearted, tenacious, unflinching; firm, hard-line, hard-shell (or hard-shelled), iron, severe, stern, strict; hidebound, narrow-minded, rigid; bloody-minded [chiefly British], cantankerous; contrary, cussed; contumacious, disobedient, froward, insubordinate, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly; defiant, insurgent, mutinous; indomitable, invincible, unconquerable; confirmed, inveterate, unregenerate; demanding, exacting

Near Antonyms docile, obedient, placable, submissive, tractable; accepting, persuadable, receptive, responsive, willing; governable, manageable, reasonable, temperate; slavish, subservient

Antonyms acquiescent, agreeable, amenable, compliant, complying, flexible, pliable, pliant, relenting, yielding