Obstinate
adj ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 persist stubbornly wordnet
- 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 […]"
- 2 Not easily subdued or removed.
"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 Typical of an obstinate person; fixed and unmoving.
"He had the same pile of curly hair, but he was clean-shaven with a heavy, obstinate jowl."
- 1 resistant to guidance or discipline wordnet
- 2 stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing wordnet
- 3 tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield wordnet
Example
More examples"You should reckon with his obstinate character."
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.
More for "obstinate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.