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unrulinesses

 - 2 dictionary results

un⋅ru⋅ly

[uhn-roo-lee]
–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


un⋅ru⋅li⋅ness, noun


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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Word Origin & History

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