Synonyms and Antonyms of recalcitrant
1
given to resisting authority or another's control
- the manager worried that the recalcitrant employee would try to undermine his authority
balky, contrary, contumacious, defiant, disobedient, froward, incompliant, insubordinate, intractable, obstreperous, rebel, rebellious, recusant, refractory, restive, ungovernable, unruly, untoward, wayward, willful (or wilful)
noncooperative, uncooperative
insurgent, mutinous
adamant, adamantine, dogged, hardheaded, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inflexible, mulish, negativistic, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, peevish, pertinacious, pigheaded, rigid, self-willed, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding
fractious, restive, uncontrollable, unmanageable, wild
perverse, resistant, wrongheaded
bad, disorderly, errant, misbehaving, mischievous, monkeying, monkeyish, naughty
undisciplined
dissident, nonconformist
discourteous, disrespectful, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-natured, impertinent, impolite, impudent, inconsiderate, insolent, ornery, rude, uncivil, uncouth, ungracious, unmannerly
acquiescent, agreeable, amiable, cooperative, deferential, obliging
yielding
behaved, disciplined, well-bred
courteous, polite, respectful
kowtowing, obsequious, servile, slavish, subservient
decorous, mannerly, orderly, proper
controllable, governable, manageable, trainable
2
given to resisting control or discipline by others
- a heart-to-heart talk with the recalcitrant youth revealed that he had a troubled life at home
froward, headstrong, incontrollable, intractable, refractory, uncontrollable, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly, untoward, wayward, willful (or wilful)
bullheaded, contrary, difficult, hardheaded, incorrigible, intransigent, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, opinionated, perverse, pigheaded, self-willed, stiff, stiff-necked, stubborn
undisciplined, unpunished
uncontrolled, wild
boisterous, irrepressible, rambunctious, rowdy
disobedient, indocile, insubordinate, rebellious
misbehaving, naughty
