Froward

//ˈfɹoʊ.ɚd// adj, prep

adj, prep ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Disobedient, contrary, unmanageable; difficult to deal with; with an evil disposition. archaic, literary

    "The wayes of the frowarde are ſtraunge, but yͤ workes of him yͭ is cleane, are right."

Adjective
  1. 1
    habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition wordnet
Preposition
  1. 1
    Away from. obsolete

    "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."

Synonyms

All synonyms
badbalkycantankerouscontentioncontrarycontumacious

Example

More examples

"The wayes of the frowarde are ſtraunge, but yͤ workes of him yͭ is cleane, are right."

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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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.