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Unruly - 4 dictionary results

un⋅ru⋅ly

  [uhn-roo-lee]
Use Unruly in a Sentence
–adjective, -li⋅er, -li⋅est.
not submissive or conforming to rule; ungovernable; turbulent; intractable; refractory; lawless: an unruly class; an unruly wilderness.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME unruely, equiv. to un- un- 1 + ruly, ruely governable, controllable; see rule, -y 1

Related forms:
un⋅ru⋅li⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
disobedient, unmanageable, uncontrollable, stubborn, disorderly, riotous. Unruly, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory describe persons or things that resist management or control. Unruly suggests persistently disorderly behavior or character in persons or things: an unruly child, peevish and willful; wild, unruly hair. Intractable suggests in persons a determined resistance to all attempts to guide or direct them, in things a refusal to respond to attempts to shape, improve, or modify them: an intractable social rebel; a seemingly intractable problem in logistics. recalcitrant and refractory imply not only a lack of submissiveness but also an open, often violent, rebellion against authority or direction. Recalcitrant, the stronger of the two terms, suggests a stubborn and absolute noncompliance: a recalcitrant person, openly contemptuous of all authority. Refractory implies active, mulish disobedience, but leaves open the possibility of eventual compliance: refractory students, resisting efforts to interest them in their studies.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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un·ru·ly   (ŭn-rōō'lē)   
adj.   un·ru·li·er, un·ru·li·est
Difficult or impossible to discipline, control, or rule.

[Middle English unreuli : un-, not; see un-1 + reuli, easy to govern (from reule, rule; see rule).]
un·ru'li·ness n.
Synonyms: These adjectives mean resistant or marked by resistance to control. Unruly implies failure to submit to rule or discipline: unruly behavior in class.
Intractable and refractory refer to what is obstinate and difficult to manage or control: "the intractable ferocity of his captive" (Edgar Allan Poe). "The idea of ecclesiastical authority ... woke all the refractory nerves of opposition inherited from five generations of Puritans" (Harriet Beecher Stowe).
One that is recalcitrant rebels against authority: arrested the recalcitrant protestors.
Headstrong describe one obstinately bent on having his or her own way: The headstrong senator ignored his constituency.
One who is wayward willfully and often perversely departs from what is desired, advised, expected, or required: "a lively child, who had been spoilt and indulged, and therefore was sometimes wayward" (Charlotte Brontë).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Unruly

Un*rul"y\, a. [Compar. Unrulier, superl. Unruliest.] [Pref. un- not + rule. Cf. Ruly.] Not submissive to rule; disregarding restraint; disposed to violate; turbulent; ungovernable; refractory; as, an unruly boy; unruly boy; unruly conduct.

But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. --James iii. 8.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : Unruly
Spanish: indisciplinado,
German: unbändig,
Japanese: 手に負えない
More Translations »

unruly 
1400, from un- (1) "not" + obsolete ruly "amenable to rule," from rule.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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