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.