OBDURATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Obdurate

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/ˈɑbdərət/ Listen

adjective

Obdurate adj.

Hardened in feelings, esp. against moral or mollifying influences; unyielding; hard-hearted; stubbornly wicked. "The very custom of evil makes the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary." "Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel, Nay, more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth?"

Hard; harsh; rugged; rough; intractable. "Obdurate consonants." Note: Sometimes accented on the second syllable, especially by the older poets. "There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart."

Synonyms: Hard; firm; unbending; inflexible; unyielding; stubborn; obstinate; impenitent; callous; unfeeling; insensible; unsusceptible. Obdurate, Callous, Hardened. Callous denotes a deadening of the sensibilities; as, a callous conscience. Hardened implies a general and settled disregard for the claims of interest, duty, and sympathy; as, hardened in vice. Obdurate implies an active resistance of the heart and will aganst the pleadings of compassion and humanity.

verb

Obdurate v. t. To harden. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Obdurate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Obdurate" Quotes from Famous Books

... moral monster whose creed is this complex web of contradictions, is, moreover, according to Dr. Cumming, a being who unites much simplicity and imbecility with his Satanic hardihood—much tenderness of conscience with his obdurate vice. Hear the "proof:" ...

— The Essays of "George Eliot" - Complete • George Eliot

... the Prince continued to run swiftly, his heart, which had at first by far outstripped his running, soon began to linger and hang back. Not that he ceased to pity the misfortune or to yearn for the sight of Seraphina; but the memory of her obdurate coldness awoke within him, and woke in turn his own habitual diffidence of self. Had Sir John been given time to tell him all, had he even known that she was speeding to the Felsenburg, he would have ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 7 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... up to the garret, and, fastening her so that she could not wander about and hurt herself, left her to her repentant thoughts, awaiting the moment when a plaintive entreaty for liberty and food should announce that the evil nature had yielded and the obdurate will was broken. ...

— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... protests and brother's encouragement she was quite obdurate. No; she hated me, she said, for spoiling her nice sash, and wild horses would not draw ...

— Tom, Dick and Harry • Talbot Baines Reed

... advice, his good means, which we could not otherwise apply unto ourselves. A friend's counsel is a charm, like mandrake wine, curas sopit; and as a [3419]bull that is tied to a fig-tree becomes gentle on a sudden (which some, saith [3420]Plutarch, interpret of good words), so is a savage, obdurate heart mollified by fair speeches. "All adversity finds ease in complaining" (as [3421]Isidore holds), "and 'tis a solace to relate it," [3422][Greek: Agathae de paraiphasis estin etairou]. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all times, ...

— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

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