Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Noisily unruly or defiant.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Making a great noise or outcry; clamorous; vociferous; noisy.
- Synonyms Tumultuous, boisterous, uproarious.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; clamorous; noisy; vociferous.
- adjective Resistant to control; unruly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Attended by, or making, a loud and
tumultuous noise ;boisterous . - adjective
Noisily andstubbornly defiant .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective noisily and stubbornly defiant
- adjective boisterously and noisily aggressive
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But the truthers quickly became known as obstreperous crazies who disrupted media events, most notably a taping of the HBO show "Real Time With Bill Maher," in 2007.
NYT > Home Page By LESLIE SAVAN 2009
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My father took the only course, as it seemed, that was open to "obstreperous" slaves - he took to the woods.
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He meets an Englishman on a French train who pleases him much, and the two become good friends and see Rome together, but the fellow's wife is "obstreperous" and "haughty in her manner" and so
A Book of Prefaces 1918
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The teacher and her "obstreperous" pupils had disappeared from Horsford and had been almost forgotten.
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Edgar bade him adieu; and the faithful Ferdinand drove him wherever he had to go, and finally to Kensington Palace Gardens, where he was ushered into the drawing-room, to find Marilda, resolved upon unconsciousness, but only succeeding in a kind of obstreperous cordiality and good will, which, together with the hot room, made him quite dizzy; and his answers were so much at random, that he sent
The Pillars of the House, V1 Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862
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"obstreperous" pupils had disappeared from Horsford and had been almost forgotten.
Bricks Without Straw Albion Winegar Tourg��e 1871
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Most teachers and many parents worry when a child is obstreperous.
Red Flags or Red Herrings? Susan Engel 2011
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As his rating bumped still lower, he found himself constrained at every step by a hostile parliament, obstreperous governors, and unruly businessmen.
The Return Daniel Treisman 2011
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A Los Angeles artist who gave that city's art establishment a bursting sense of pride for having nurtured such an obstreperous talent, he earned his celebrity status in part by retaining the obsessions and wounds of a smart Catholic working-class kid from the suburbs of Detroit who had never entirely assimilated to his sun-splashed California home.
How Will the Future Judge Him? Richard B. Woodward 2012
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For instance, as new research shows, obstreperous behavior in early childhood does not predict academic difficulty in elementary and middle school.
Red Flags or Red Herrings? Susan Engel 2011
brtom commented on the word obstreperous
"Of course his infant majesty was most obstreperous at such toilet formalities and he let everyone know it ..."
Joyce, Ulysses, 13
January 14, 2007
ecrivaine33 commented on the word obstreperous
I saw this word for the first time ever today in a Boston Globe article.
January 23, 2007
liu_xing commented on the word obstreperous
I have a feeling I first saw this word in a kid's book about a naughty kite. Anyone remember that one?
January 23, 2007
liu_xing commented on the word obstreperous
(not as impressive as Joyce, unfortunately)
January 23, 2007
fitzage commented on the word obstreperous
I've loved this word ever since my college roommate introduced me to it 7 or 8 years ago.
February 23, 2007
kewpid commented on the word obstreperous
Unruly or difficult to control
September 17, 2007
toodreamy commented on the word obstreperous
The book about the naughty kite, by Ted Greenwood was called "Obstreperous". It is always in demand by readers who loved it as a child.
February 11, 2008
hildjj commented on the word obstreperous
Heard on CarTalk #0822.
July 18, 2008
ladyphlogiston commented on the word obstreperous
There's a guy I know who practically defines this word...I gave him a T-shirt with "obstreperous" written across the chest and he loves it
More to the point, we used this a lot growing up. My boyfriend was always amused to hear my little sister (five years old or so) telling the dog to "stop being obstreperous!"
July 20, 2008
vaguelyremincent commented on the word obstreperous
I used this one today at work to describe a stain on a table. My coworker thought that I was speaking gibberish!
September 8, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word obstreperous
A boisterously and noisily aggressive stain?
September 8, 2008
yarb commented on the word obstreperous
Just as this harangue was over, we saw a great crowd of both sexes coming out of town into the plain. Who should it be but the new-married couple, attended by their families and friends, with ten or twelve musicians in the van, producing a most obstreperous din of harmony.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 2 ch. 9
September 13, 2008
vortexlip commented on the word obstreperous
(deleted)
January 29, 2009
beanlowry commented on the word obstreperous
I read this in a book today: "While a guest aboard a British warship anchored at Unalaska, he became drunk and obstreperous, embarrassing his fellow officers and shocking his host." John Taliaferro, "In a Far Country: The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898," 2006, pg. 203.
February 16, 2009
refenestration commented on the word obstreperous
How wonderful. A simple definition for such a complicated word! Reminds me of my siblings, though..
November 24, 2009
gootnbewg commented on the word obstreperous
For many years I spelt it "obstroporous". The curse of strine.
January 8, 2011
yarb commented on the word obstreperous
I rather like "obstroporous" for its echo of stroppy.
January 8, 2011
100000232338334 commented on the word obstreperous
"And sometimes when he does sing, it brings back memories, and he gets, ah, obstreperous." -Club Dead, by Charlaine Harris
February 5, 2011