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STUBBORN
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield
Synonyms:
obstinate; stubborn; unregenerate
Classified under:
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)
Antonym:
docile (willing to be taught or led or supervised or directed)
Derivation:
stubbornness (resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not responding to treatment
Example:
stubborn rust stains
Synonyms:
refractory; stubborn
Classified under:
Similar:
intractable (not tractable; difficult to manage or mold)
Derivation:
stubbornness (the trait of being difficult to handle or overcome)
Context examples:
He's a stubborn fellow and hard to manage, said Mr. Laurence, rubbing up his hair till it looked as if he had been out in a gale, and smoothing the frown from his brow with an air of relief.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He was a good fighter, whole-souled and stubborn, and he would have been content to continue feeding the machine for years; but he was bleeding to death, and not years but weeks would determine the fight.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
But when the disease was more stubborn and violent, he let in the muzzle while the bellows were full of wind, which he discharged into the body of the patient; then withdrew the instrument to replenish it, clapping his thumb strongly against the orifice of then fundament; and this being repeated three or four times, the adventitious wind would rush out, bringing the noxious along with it, (like water put into a pump), and the patient recovered.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I never thought Edward so stubborn, so unfeeling before.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Mr. Rochester heard, but heeded not: he stood stubborn and rigid, making no movement but to possess himself of my hand.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
At which direct defiance the stubborn sneer would reappear upon Professor Summerlee's face, and he would sit, shaking his sardonic head in unsympathetic silence, behind the cloud of his briar-root pipe.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
What a strange, unaccountable character!—for with all these symptoms of profligacy at ten years old, she had neither a bad heart nor a bad temper, was seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to the little ones, with few interruptions of tyranny; she was moreover noisy and wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
You shall find me as stubborn as you can be artful.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Stubborn? he said, and annoyed.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
