OBSTINACY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Obstinacy

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/ˈɑbstənəsi/ Listen

noun

Obstinacy n.

A fixedness in will, opinion, or resolution that can not be shaken at all, or only with great difficulty; firm and usually unreasonable adherence to an opinion, purpose, or system; unyielding disposition; stubborness; pertinacity; persistency; contumacy. "You do not well in obstinacy To cavil in the course of this contract." "To shelter their ignorance, or obstinacy, under the obscurity of their terms."

The quality or state of being difficult to remedy, relieve, or subdue; as, the obstinacy of a disease or evil.

Synonyms: Pertinacity; firmness; resoluteness; inflexibility; persistency; stubbornness; perverseness; contumacy. Obstinacy, Pertinacity. Pertinacity denotes great firmness in holding to a thing, aim, etc. Obstinacy is great firmness in holding out against persuasion, attack, etc. The former consists in adherence, the latter in resistance. An opinion is advocated with pertinacity or defended with obstinacy. Pertinacity is often used in a good sense; obstinacy generally in a bad one. "In this reply was included a very gross mistake, and if with pertinacity maintained, a capital error." "Every degree of obstinacy in youth is one step to rebellion."

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Etymology of 'Obstinacy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Obstinacy" Quotes from Famous Books

... sanati fuerint non vidi' were changed to 'pluresque sanatos passim audivi': 'I have heard of many that were cured.' Testimony in support of miracles has often been manufactured, but the natural obstinacy and truthfulness of Servetus would not admit of his giving his personal endorsement at ...

— Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing • George Barton Cutten

... you may linger, but some time or another, sooner or later, you must go on, and when you do, then once again the Trail takes up its continuity without reference to the muddied place you have tramped out in your indecision or indolence or obstinacy or necessity. It would be exceedingly curious to follow out in patience the chart of a man's going, tracing the pattern of his steps with all its windings of nursery, playground, boys afield, country, city, plain, forest, mountain, wilderness, ...

— The Mountains • Stewart Edward White

... detective with the most decided proof of his guilt, that he was condemned to death. Awtry received the sentence of the court with haughty indifference, and was led back to prison, to await death by hanging. On the morning of his execution, the courage and obstinacy which had sustained him from the day of his arrest, gave way, and to the minister who edited upon him, he made a full confession of his having been sent to Mississippi as a spy for Sherman, and that he had already supplied that yankee ...

— The Trials of the Soldier's Wife - A Tale of the Second American Revolution • Alex St. Clair Abrams

... it would be no light task to have to be eyes for the blind, and subject to the willfulness and obstinacy of a capricious and over-indulged child. That there would be many severe trials in her position she did not doubt, but there would also be comfort in having the protection of a home, and, perhaps, the occasional companionship of a cultured gentleman ...

— His Heart's Queen • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... the best," she said, and obstinacy and a kind of impatient tenderness strove in her eyes as she looked at him. "You must show yourself a man; it is not fitting that loose ladies of the Court should mock—" He got up; and his eyes were ...

— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson

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