Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Obstinately disobedient or rebellious; insubordinate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Headstrong; insolent; hence, resisting legitimate authority, whether civil, ecclesiastical, military, or parental; stubbornly disobedient or rebellious: as, a contumacious child.
- Specifically In law, wilfully disobedient to a lawful order of a judicial or legislative body, or showing wilful contempt of its authority. Synonyms Stubborn, Refractory, etc. (see
obstinate ), proud, headstrong, unmanageable, ungovernable, unruly, wilful, perverse.
Wiktionary
- adj. Contemptuous of authority; willfully disobedient; rebellious.
- adj. Willfully disobedient to the summons or orders of a court.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Exhibiting contumacy; contemning authority; obstinate; perverse; stubborn; disobedient.
- adj. Willfully disobedient to the summons or orders of a court.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. wilfully obstinate; stubbornly disobedient
Examples
“Simply put, like whoever posted the diatribe "Traitors to Democracy, Traitors to America, Enemies of Democracy," you show your kinship to the Jacobins of the French Revolution; desirousness of murdering, oops, I should say liberating with extreme prejudice those who are "contumacious" of your socialist/fascist agenda.”
“She sighed especially over "contumacious"; it was so beautifully long.”
“She was in the act of fixing up "contumacious," and making it a little more un-English if possible, when the poke awoke her to her surroundings.”
“[FN#67] Márid (lit. "contumacious" from the Heb. root Marad to rebel, whence "Nimrod" in late Semitic) is one of the tribes of the Jinn, generally but not always hostile to man.”
“I believe she was pronounced 'contumacious' by the”
“The near neighborhood of the place was chosen, in order to deprive her of all plea of ignorance; and as she made no answer to the citation, either by herself or proxy, she was declared "contumacious;" and the primate proceeded to the examination of the cause.”
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. From Henry VII. to Mary
“By this I knew the hills were still mad, and deeply fissured, and that nesting within remained the contumacious hybrids.”
“For someone who has basked in the glory of being called a military hero for many years, McCain's contumacious behavior makes him so much less of a man than many of the LGBT troops who are currently serving their country.”
“Africa's reform process has been stalled by contumacious chicanery, willful deception, and strong-arm tactics.”
“Gates's behavior may have been contumacious, rude, discourteous, name it.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘contumacious’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
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If You Can't Say Anything Nice
Negative attributes or actions.
biased, cantankerous, caustic, contumacious, dilatory, disdain, duplicitous, fastidious, fractious, glower, haughty, imperious and 12 more...
bilby "His Honour was, of course, firmly of the view that the appellant's mental state was such that she was capable of participating in the trial had she chosen to do so," he (Durward) said.
"On this view, what is said to be the product of an unsoundness of mind can be seen to be the conduct of a contumacious litigant in defiance of the authority of the court.
- David Barbeler, Bum-flashing lecturer's appeal dismissed, theage.com.au, 13 Oct 2009. Oct 13, 2009