Etymology From Middle English froward, fraward, equivalent to fro + -ward. Compare Old English fromweard, framweard (“turned away, having the back turned”).
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Archaic, Literary Disobedient, contrary, unmanageable; difficult to deal with; with an evil disposition.
The wayes of the frowarde are ſtraunge, but yͤ workes of him yͭ is cleane, are right.1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Prouerbes xxj:[8], folio xliij, verso, column 1:
But in the meanwhile, for fear lest if he would wax never the better he would wax much the worse; and from gentle, smooth, sweet, and courteous, might wax angry, rough, froward, and sour, and thereupon be troublous and tedious to the world to make fair weather with; they give him fair words for the while and put him in good comfort, and let him for the rest take his own chance.1553 (posth.), Thomas More, A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, Book I, Chapter 14
4 more examples
Her onely fault, and that is faults enough, Is, that ſhe is intollerable curſt, And ſhrow’d, and froward, ſo beyond all meaſure, That were my ſtate farre worſer then it is, I would not wed her for a mine of Gold.c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 213, column 1:
All this is true, if Time ſtood ſtill; which contrariwiſe moueth ſo round, that a Froward Retention of Cuſtome, is as turbulent a Thing, as an Innouation: […]1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Innouations”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, page 140:
A froward child becomes an untoward youth, who turns a deaf ear to all the admonitions of an afflicted parent.1816, George Crabb, English Synonymes Explained, London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, page 133:
The old man […] began to suffer in the body as well as the mind. He had formed the determination of setting out in person for Dumfriesshire, when, after having been dogged, peevish, and snappish to his clerks and domestics, to an unusual and almost intolerable degree, the acrimonious humours settled in a hissing-hot fit of the gout, which is a well-known tamer of the most froward spirits, […]1824 June, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Redgauntlet, […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 50:
Etymology From Middle English froward, fraward, equivalent to fro + -ward. Compare Old English fromweard, framweard (“turned away, having the back turned”).
Whan Sir Galahad herde hir sey so, he was adrad to be knowyn; and therewith he smote hys horse with his sporys and rode a grete pace froward them.1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xvii”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XIII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC: