contumacious

From Latin contumāx (“stubborn, obstinate”) +‎ -ious.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkɒn.tjʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑːn.tʊˈmeɪ.ʃəs/, /ˌkɑːn.tjəˈmeɪ.ʃəs/

• Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: con‧tu‧ma‧cious
• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

contumacious (comparative more contumacious, superlative most contumacious)

1. Contemptuous of authority; willfully disobedient; rebellious.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes”, in Henry John Todd, editor, The Poetical Works of John Milton, volume 4, published 1801, page 505:

     […] and, on his conſtancie, ſounds an accuſation to Herod of a contumacious affront, on ſuch a day, before many peers; præpares the king to ſome paſſion, and at laſt, by her daughter’s dancing, effects it.

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IV, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book V (Parliament First):

     In all places too are Dissident Priests; whom the Legislative will have to deal with: contumacious individuals, working on that angriest of passions; plotting, enlisting.

   • 1886, G A Henty, “XX, Friends in Trouble”, in The Lion of the North:

     But the emperor has ordered that if the count remain contumacious Thekla shall be taken from us and placed in a convent, where she will be forced to embrace Catholicism, and will, when she comes of age, be given in marriage to some adherent of the emperor, who will with her receive the greater portion of her father's lands.

   • [1921 [1919], H. L. Mencken, chapter 39, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 262:

     Its verbs are conjugated in a way that defies all the injunctions of the grammar books; it has its contumacious rules of tense, number and case; […]]

2. (law) Willfully disobedient to the summons or orders of a court.

• (contemptuous of authority): disobedient, insubordinate, obstinate, perverse, rebellious, stubborn

• contumaciously
• contumaciousness
• contumacy
• contumely
• contumelious