Friday, July 3, 2009
Recalcitrant Meaning and Usage
Recalcitrant:
adjective
- Marked by defiance; Not submitting to discipline or control.
- hard to deal with, manage, or operate.
noun
- A recalcitrant person.
Derivatives:
recalcitrance - adjective
recalcitrancy - adjective
recalcitrantly - adverb
recalcitration - noun
Let’s look at some examples:
1. If they lingered too long, Clarice hurried them along in the same annoyed way she rushed recalcitrant goats through the gate.
2. The University suspended the most recalcitrant demonstrators
3. There was something in her manner so reminiscent of the school teacher reprimanding a recalcitrant pupil that Mr. Snyder's sense of humor came to his rescue. "We do our best, Mrs. Pickett," he said. "But you mustn't forget that we are only human and cannot guarantee results."
4. Most of today’s criminals started out as yesterday’s recalcitrant children.
5. Recalcitrant Israelites rebelled against Rome in A.D. 67.
6. Many a recalcitrant has been sent to the principal’s office.
7. The recalcitrant cancer continued to spread through the patient’s body despite every therapy and treatments the doctors could think to try.
8. The country was in a turmoil, but the recalcitrant dictator refused to even listen to the pleas of the international representatives.
Synonyms: adamant, contrary, contumacious, defiant, disobedient, disorderly, firm fractious, headstrong, immovable, indocile, inflexible, insubordinate, intractable, lawless, mutinous, noncompliant, obstinate, obstreperous, perverse, rebellious, refractory, stiff, stubborn, unbending, uncontrollable, undisciplined, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly, untoward, unwilling, unyielding, wayward, wild, wilful,
Antonyms: amenable, compliant, docile, obedient, passive
Some more examples:
1. Recalcitrant students who refuse to obey the rules risk expulsion.
2. Recalcitrant students are usually tardy, do not complete class assignments, and disrupt class.
3. Similarly, the recalcitrant employer might seek to argue that the union does not come with clean hands.
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I have seen you put a full stop after Mr and Mrs in example no 3. Are the full stops necessary after Mr and Mrs?
ReplyDelete@vkdmenon1@gmail.com: You see there is a commmon pratice to end with a period or dot whenever you are writing an Abbreviated word.
ReplyDeleteAs Mr. stands for Mister and Mrs. stands for Mistress.
However you will experience different written occurences when comparing American and British usage.
American usage demands ending an abbreviated word with a period that denotes it is an abbreviation, whereas British use is little tricky in the sense that you only end it with a period if the last letter in the abbreviated word is not same as in the original word.
Eg.
For Mister
Mr (British), Mr. (American)
For Mistress
Mrs (British), Mrs. (American)
For Captain or Professor
Capt. or Prof. (both in British and American English)
Ms. now adays inflates to both Miss and Mrs. in many countries. Just like Mr where you still pay homage to the sex without expressing any views as to their domestic situation.