contumacious.

Stubbornly resisting lawful or established authority.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• contumacious conduct
• contumacious refusal

On the page

The judge condemned his contumacious refusal.

Her contumacious conduct brought another penalty.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Comparative more contumacious; superlative most contumacious where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.