| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult |
| Synonyms: | awkward, bull-headed, cantankerous, contrary, fractious, hang tough, hard-line, headstrong, immovable, incompliant, incurable, indocile, indomitable, insoluble, intransigent, locked, locked in, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, pat, pertinacious, perverse, pig-headed, recalcitrant, refractory, resolute, self-willed, stubborn, tenacious, tough, tough nut, unbending, uncompromising, uncooperative, undisciplined, ungovernable, unmanageable, unpliable, unruly, unyielding, wayward, wild, willful |
| Notes: | intractable means stubborn or obstinate; intransigent is this, but implies being more intense and refusing to compromise or change |
| Antonyms: | manageable |
| Main Entry: | contrary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | antagonistic; opposite |
| Synonyms: | adverse, anti, antipathetic, antipodal, antipodean, antithetical, balky, clashing, conflicting, contradictory, contrariant, contumacious, converse, counter, diametric, discordant, dissentient, dissident, froward, headstrong, hostile, inconsistent, inimical, insubordinate, intractable, negative, nonconforming, nonconformist, obstinate, opposed, ornery*, paradoxical, perverse, rebellious, recalcitrant, recusant, refractory, restive, reverse, stubborn, unruly, wayward, wrongheaded |
| Notes: | contrary describes something that contradicts a proposition, converse is used when the elements of a proposition are reversed, opposite pertains to that which is diametrically opposed to a proposition, and reverse can mean each of those |
| Antonyms: | accommodating, agreeing, alike, concordant, correspondent, harmonious, homogeneous, like, obliging, similar |
| Main Entry: | contumacious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | headstrong, obstinate |
| Synonyms: | alienated, contrary, disaffected, estranged, factious, froward, haughty, inflexible, insubordinate, insurgent, intractable, intransigent, irreconcilable, mutinous, obdurate, perverse, pig-headed, rebellious, recalcitrant, refractory, seditious, stubborn, unyielding |
| Antonyms: | following, obedient, subordinate, tractable, willing |
| Main Entry: | deaf |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unwilling |
| Synonyms: | bullheaded, headstrong, indifferent, intractable, mulish, oblivious, obstinate, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, self-willed, strong-willed, stubborn, to listen blind, unaware, unconcerned, unhearing, unmoved |
| Antonyms: | attentive, aware, conscious, listening, willing |
| Main Entry: | difficult |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unmanageable socially |
| Synonyms: | argumentative, bearish, boorish, dark, demanding, fastidious, finicky, fractious, fussy, grim, hard to please, impolite, intractable, irritable, oafish, obstreperous, perverse, picky, refractory, rigid, rude, tiresome, tough, troublesome, trying, unaccommodating, unamenable |
| Antonyms: | calm, friendly, sociable |
| Main Entry: | disobedient |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | defiant, mischievous |
| Synonyms: | contrary, contumacious, disorderly, fractious, froward, headstrong, insubordinate, intractable, naughty, noncompliant, nonobservant, obstreperous, perverse, recalcitrant, refractory, resistive, uncompliant, undisciplined, unruly, wayward, willful |
| Antonyms: | accepting, behaving, nice, obedient, observant, submitting |
| Main Entry: | fractious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | grouchy, cross |
| Synonyms: | awkward, captious, crabby, disorderly, fretful, froward, huffy, indocile, indomitable, intractable, irritable, mean, ornery*, peevish, perverse, pettish, petulant, querulous, recalcitrant, refractory, restive, scrappy, snappish, testy, thin-skinned, touchy, uncompliant, undisciplined, unmanageable, unruly, wayward, wild |
| Notes: | factious means addicted to forming parties and raise dissensions in opposition to government or the common good, while fractious means tending to cause trouble or unruly or irritable |
| Antonyms: | agreeable, complaisant, happy, nice, patient |
| Main Entry: | grim |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hopeless, horrible in manner, appearance |
| Synonyms: | austere, barbarous, bleak, cantankerous, churlish, crabbed, cruel, crusty, dogged, ferocious, fierce, forbidding, foreboding, formidable, frightful, funereal, ghastly, gloomy, glowering, glum, grisly, grouchy, gruesome, grumpy*, harsh, hideous, horrid, implacable, inexorable, intractable, merciless, morose, ominous, relentless, resolute, ruthless, scowling, severe, shocking, sinister, somber, sour, splenetic, stern, stubborn, sulky, sullen, surly, terrible, truculent, unrelenting, unyielding |
| Antonyms: | bright, cheerful, happy, hopeful, joyful, sunny |
| Main Entry: | hard-nosed/hardheaded |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | stubborn |
| Synonyms: | astute, bullheaded, hard*, hard-boiled, headstrong, intractable, levelheaded, locked in, mulish, obstinate, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, practical, pragmatic, rational, realistic, resolute, sensible, shrewd, sober, stand pat, tough, tough-nut, unsentimental, unyielding, willful |
| Antonyms: | easy, easy-going, laid-back, merciful |