obstinate
adjUK /ˈɒb.stɪ.nət/ · US /ˈɑb.stə.nət/
Etymology Inherited from Middle English obstinat(e) (“obstinate, stubborn”), from Latin obstinātus, perfect passive participle of obstinō (“set one's mind firmly upon, resolve”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ob (“before”) + *stinare, from stare (“to stand”). Doublet of ostinato.
1
Stubbornly adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course, usually with implied unreasonableness; persistent.
- From this consideration it is that we have derived the custom, in times of war, to punish […] those who are obstinate to defend a place that by the rules of war is not tenable […]1686, Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton, That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence of a fort that is not in reason to be defended:
- […] the junior Osborne was quite as obstinate as the senior: when he wanted a thing, quite as firm in his resolution to get it; and quite as violent when angered, as his father in his most stern moments1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
2
Of an inanimate object, not easily subdued or removed.
- an obstinate blockage in the pipe
- 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part IV, Chapter XXIX, Now it happened that Kasturbai […] had again begun getting haemorrhage, and the malady seemed to be obstinate.
3
Of a facial feature or expression, fixed and unmoving.
- He had the same pile of curly hair, but he was clean-shaven with a heavy, obstinate jowl.1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
- Synonyms
61 terms
bloody-minded, persistent, stubborn, pertinacious, unrelenting, inexorable, adamant, ardent, grim, bent on, bullheaded, certain, chronic, confirmed, determined, diehard, dogged, hard-hearted, hard-nosed, hardheaded, headstrong, immovable, incalcitrant, inflexible, irrefragable, insistent, intractable, intransigent, intrepid, inveterate, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, obstreperous, peevish, peremptory, pigheaded, recalcitrant, refractory, resolute, resolved, rigid, self-willed, stalwart, staunch, steadfast, steady, stubborn as a mule, sullen, tenacious, terminal, thran, thwart, tough, truculent, unbending, uncompromising, unyielding, vehement, wilful, willful- Antonyms
- compromising, transigent, flexible, sycophantic, yielding
- Derived terms
- obstinacy, obstinately, obstinateness, unobstinate
- Related terms
- recidivist, contrary, obstinacy, persist
- Hypernyms
- hard
- Hyponyms
- hellbent, indomitable, iron-fisted, iron-handed, iron-willed, monomaniacal, perverse, relentless, tireless