wayward

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
But women are wayward cattle--wayward, headstrong cattle!

View all »
Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Given to or marked by willful, often perverse deviation from what is desired, expected, or required in order to gratify one's own impulses or inclinations. See Synonyms at unruly.
  2. adjective Swayed or prompted by caprice; unpredictable.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Strange, wayward, and in one respect faulty, as his life was, his poetry—strange, and exceedingly wayward too—is often very lovely. —  England's Antiphon
  • You may find the Shadow of the Wood at your own door next: it is wayward, and senseless, and has no love for Men. —  The Lord of the Rings
  • She passed her hand over her hair as she ran lightly down the stairs to make sure that her curls were not too wayward, and smoothed out the creases of her dress. —  Mary Balogh Ungrateful Governess
  • She writes of him as a wayward, exasperating, childish genius: her charge. —  Top stories from Times Online
  • You both remind me of the prophet Jeremiah, who spent his whole life calling a wayward people to repentance in turning from life-habits that would eventually destroy them. —  my treasure
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 194 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

capricious ·  unruly ·  headstrong ·  perverse ·  disobedient ·  impetuous ·  restless ·  irritable ·  moody ·  foolish ·  erratic ·  wilful
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, short for awaiward, turned away, perverse : awai, away; see away + -ward, -ward.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English weyward, weiward, by apheresis from awayward, adjective, from awayward, aweiward, adverb: see awayward, and cf. froward.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈweɪwərd/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a month.

Recently looked up

Narnia · firecracker · fling · colloquy · Razek

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Glockenspiel · Ersatz · Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid · Haifischschwanzflossenfleischsuppe · Der Kottbusser Postkutscher putzt den Kottbusser Postkutschkasten