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OBSTINATE
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Resistant to guidance or discipline
Example:
wayward behavior
Synonyms:
contrary; obstinate; perverse; wayward
Classified under:
Similar:
disobedient (not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing
Synonyms:
cussed; obdurate; obstinate; unrepentant
Classified under:
Similar:
unregenerate; unregenerated (not reformed morally or spiritually)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield
Synonyms:
obstinate; stubborn; unregenerate
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
bloody-minded; cantankerous (stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate)
bolshy; stroppy (obstreperous)
bullet-headed; bullheaded; pigheaded (obstinate and stupid)
dogged; dour; persistent; pertinacious; tenacious; unyielding (stubbornly unyielding)
contrarious; cross-grained (difficult to deal with)
determined (devoting full strength and concentrated attention to)
hardheaded; mulish (unreasonably rigid in the face of argument or entreaty or attack)
stiff-necked (haughtily stubborn)
strong-minded; strong-willed (having a determined will)
Also:
inflexible; sturdy; uncompromising (not making concessions)
disobedient (not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority)
intractable (not tractable; difficult to manage or mold)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Persist stubbornly
Example:
he obstinates himself against all rational arguments
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "obstinate" is one way to...):
hang in; hang on; hold on; persevere; persist (be persistent, refuse to stop)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Derivation:
obstinance (resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires)
Context examples:
One day's delay, she observed, would be of small importance; and her mother was too happy to be quite so obstinate as usual.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Which two mighty powers have, as I was going to tell you, been engaged in a most obstinate war for six-and-thirty moons past.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He is very decided, but never will be obstinate, if you reason kindly, not oppose impatiently.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Self-willed, obstinate, selfish, and ungrateful.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Even the old chief met us with the same obstinate denial, and it was only Maretas, the youngster whom we had saved, who looked wistfully at us and told us by his gestures that he was grieved for our thwarted wishes.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I knew him to be a very good sort of man, and I thought well of his daughter—better than she deserved, for, with a most obstinate and ill-judged secrecy, she would tell nothing, would give no clue, though she certainly knew all.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Much could not be hoped from the traffic of even the busiest part of Highbury;—Mr. Perry walking hastily by, Mr. William Cox letting himself in at the office-door, Mr. Cole's carriage-horses returning from exercise, or a stray letter-boy on an obstinate mule, were the liveliest objects she could presume to expect; and when her eyes fell only on the butcher with his tray, a tidy old woman travelling homewards from shop with her full basket, two curs quarrelling over a dirty bone, and a string of dawdling children round the baker's little bow-window eyeing the gingerbread, she knew she had no reason to complain, and was amused enough; quite enough still to stand at the door.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
But I’ll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be obstinate.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“David,” he said, making his lips thin, by pressing them together, “if I have an obstinate horse or dog to deal with, what do you think I do?”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She is as obstinate as—Thorpe never finished the simile, for it could hardly have been a proper one.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
