Crossword clues for froward
froward
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Froward \Fro"ward\, a. [Fro + -ward. See Fro, and cf. Fromward.] Not willing to yield or compIy with what is required or is reasonable; perverse; disobedient; peevish; as, a froward child.
A froward man soweth strife.
--Prov. xvi.
28.
A froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing
as innovation.
--Bacon.
Syn: Untoward; wayward; unyielding; ungovernable: refractory; obstinate; petulant; cross; peevish. See Perverse. -- Fro"ward*ly, adv. -- Fro"ward*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
12c., froward, fraward "turned against, perverse, disobedient; peevish, petulant; adverse, difficult," as a preposition, "away from," the Northern form of Old English fromweard (see fromward), with Old Norse fra (see fro) in place of English from. Opposite of toward, it renders Latin pervertus in early translations of the Psalms, and also meant "about to depart, departing," and "doomed to die." Related: Frowardly; frowardness.
Wiktionary
a. (context archaic English) disobedient, contrary, unmanageable; difficult to deal with; with an evil disposition. prep. (label en obsolete) Away from.
WordNet
adj. habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition [syn: headstrong, self-willed, willful, wilful]
Usage examples of "froward".
She dies of long and lingering disease: yet SHE is in fault, SHE is the criminal, SHE the froward and untamable child,--and society, forsooth, the pure and virtuous matron, who casts her as an abortion from her undefiled bosom!
And those two froward sisters, their faire louesCame with them eke, all were they wondrous loth,And fained cheare, as for the time behoues,But could not colour yet so well the troth,But that their natures bad appeard in both:For both did at their second sister grutch,And inly grieue, as doth an hidden mothThe inner garment fret, not th'vtter touch.
Perdy me leuer were to weeten that,(Said he) then ransome of the richest knight,Or all the good that euer yet I gat:But froward fortune, and too forward NightSuch happinesse did, maulgre, to me spight,And fro me reft both life and light attone.
Like as a wayward childe, whose sounder sleepeIs broken with some fearefull dreames affright,With froward will doth set him selfe to weepe.
Then Sir Galahad heard her say so he was adread to be known: therewith he smote his horse with his spurs and rode a great pace froward them.
He had of course told Jack of the pygmy hippopotamus, the red bush pig, the froward elephant that chased him into a baobab tree, the baythighed monkeys, the chimpanzees (mild, curious, though timid), a terrestrial orchid higher than himself, with rose-pink flowers, the Kroo python that Square addressed in a respectful chant and that watched them, turning its head, as they paced meekly by, the seven different hornbills, the two pangolins, the large variety of beetles of course and a scorpion seven and a half inches long, together with sun-birds and weavers.
The lawyer seemed a knowledgable man, willing to converse, and Stephen asked him how, in naval courts, a suit for tyranny and oppression might be instituted in cases of extreme disparity of rank: whether, to take an entirely hypothetical example, a froward commander-in-chief and his accomplice of post rank who persecuted an innocent subordinate might be brought before officers on the same station or whether the matter would have to be referred to the High Court of Admiralty, the Privy Council, or the Regent himself.
He had of course told Jack of the pygmy hippopotamus, the red bush pig, the froward elephant that chased him into a baobab tree, the baythighed monkeys, the chimpanzees (mild, curious, though timid), a terrestrial orchid higher than himself, with rose-pink flowers, the Kroo python that Square addressed in a respectful chant and that watched them, turning its head, as they paced meekly by, the seven different hornbills, the two pangolins, the large variety of beetles of course and a scorpion seven and a half inches long, together with sun-birds and .