Obstreperous

//əbˈstɹɛp.əɹ.əs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; boisterous.

    "[O]n a clear still summer evening you may hear from the battery of New York the obstreperous peals of broad-mouthed laughter of the Dutch negroes at Communipaw."

  2. 2
    Stubbornly defiant; disobedient; resistant to authority or control (whether in a noisy manner or not).

    "[W]e came to Whittingham. Thence to Newcastle, where an obstreperous horse retarded us for an hour at least."

Adjective
  1. 1
    boisterously and noisily aggressive wordnet
  2. 2
    noisily and stubbornly defiant wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
clamorousdefiantrecalcitrantadamantadamantineaggressive

Example

More examples

"[O]n a clear still summer evening you may hear from the battery of New York the obstreperous peals of broad-mouthed laughter of the Dutch negroes at Communipaw."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin obstreperus, first attested circa 17th c. Compare obstropulous.

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