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What is "intractable"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
intractable
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
seemingly intractable (=seeming to be impossible deal with)
▪ Unemployment remained a serious, seemingly intractable problem.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ The trouble is that the problem is proving to be more intractable than even the most cynical Democrats had feared.
▪ Economic disparities grow ever greater and more intractable.
▪ Elsewhere the problems are far more intractable.
▪ Taking the discussion one step further to the reduction of inequalities in outcome, one is faced with even more intractable problems.
▪ However, behind the tendencies we have charted lurks a more intractable problem, that of curriculum expertise.
▪ Tony's learning difficulties and in particular his own attitude to them, proved more intractable.
▪ The third criticism, however, seems more intractable.
▪ But where a disease is contracted by the defendant, more intractable difficulties arise.
most
▪ It has been and remains the most intractable problem of world diplomacy.
▪ But perhaps the most intractable obstacle to mass college attendance was the elite character of the college itself.
▪ But the most intractable problem in Baia Mare is not smoke but dust.
▪ His first was the development of submerged combustion, which enabled the most intractable liquids to be heated without expensive constructions.
▪ From him even the most intractable pages stir with revolutionary fervour.
▪ These theoretical problems are most visible and at their most intractable in the area of fostering and adoption policy.
seemingly
▪ Even more seemingly intractable problems will be posed by attempts to store virtual reality.
▪ Although here, too, Chicago had fared better than many older cities, unemployment remained a serious, seemingly intractable problem.
▪ It provided simple answers to seemingly intractable questions.
▪ Do not concern yourself with this seemingly intractable problem.
▪ It should be one which presents a seemingly intractable problem.
▪ What he was really saying, though, is that we face seemingly intractable problems and that the solutions will be difficult.
▪ But remember: you have to believe that the seemingly intractable problem can be cracked.
■ NOUN
problem
▪ It has been and remains the most intractable problem of world diplomacy.
▪ Taking the discussion one step further to the reduction of inequalities in outcome, one is faced with even more intractable problems.
▪ It was a breathtakingly audacious solution to an intractable problem, and the results were to be breathtaking as well.
▪ However, behind the tendencies we have charted lurks a more intractable problem, that of curriculum expertise.
▪ Although here, too, Chicago had fared better than many older cities, unemployment remained a serious, seemingly intractable problem.
▪ As a result, their efforts were diverted more towards devising non-custodial alternatives than facing up to the intractable problems of institutional confinement.
▪ For understandable reasons, Toyota wanted no part of the Fremont location and its history of intractable problems.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ intractable enemies
▪ Even rich nations often have intractable poverty.
▪ The disposal of toxic wastes is one of the most intractable problems facing industrialized societies.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Intractable

Intractable \In*tract"a*ble\, a. [L. intractabilis: cf. F. intraitable, formerly also intractable. See In- not, and Tractable.] Not tractable; not easily governed, managed, or directed; indisposed to be taught, disciplined, or tamed; violent; stubborn; obstinate; refractory; as, an intractable child.

Syn: Stubborn; perverse; obstinate; refractory; cross; unmanageable; unruly; headstrong; violent; ungovernable; unteachable. -- In*tract"a*ble*ness, n. -- In*tract"a*bly, adv.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
intractable

c.1500, "rough, stormy;" 1540s, "not manageable," from Latin intractabilis "not to be handled, unmanageable," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + tractabilis (see tractable). Related: Intractably.

Wiktionary
intractable

a. Not tractable or to be drawn or guided by persuasion; not easily governed, managed, or directed; uncontrollable; incurable; violent; stubborn; obstinate.

WordNet
intractable

adj. not tractable; difficult to manage or mold; "an intractable disposition"; "intractable pain"; "the most intractable issue of our era"; "intractable metal" [ant: tractable]

Usage examples of "intractable".

Since he could not have the intractable Adams standing in the way, the French Foreign Minister sent specific instructions to La Luzerne to do whatever necessary to have Adams removed.

After dinner we went for a walk, and the three friends understanding my aims left me alone with the intractable girl, who resisted my caresses in a manner which almost made me give up the hope of taming her.

Astoria, but I do know that gonorrhoea is an intractable disease, especially of women.

The intractably insane are intractable precisely because it suits them to be so.

These, with the moccasin and leggin invariably worn, the leggin generally in a dozen folds at the ankle, made the war toilet of the intractable Tonto.

Nations allow Voltaire to extend his satire beyond the easy target of Leibnizian optimism and to verify his pessimism by a wide survey of the intractable evil of human societies.

Whatever the unhealthy condition may be which gives rise to this troublesome symptom, it calls for prompt and skillful treatment, for the most trivial affections of these organs often pass into those that are exceedingly intractable, if not incurable.

I am compelled to report that the boy Agrippa Postumus is inclined to display a savage, domineering and intractable temper.

She had thrust the lively intractable Comus out of her mind, as by his perverseness he had thrust himself out of her heart, and she had chosen the brilliant young man of affairs as her husband.

This fellow Lopez, had absolutely been allowed to make a good score off his own intractable disobedience.

The forcing lie detector probes Barrand and Nelt wanted would involve traceable drugs or telltale physical damage if the subjects turned out to be as intractable as he suspected these subjects might be.

It seems, in fact, as though there existed in certain men a veritable bestial instinct, though pure and upright, like all instincts, which creates antipathies and sympathies, which fatally separates one nature from another nature, which does not hesitate, which feels no disquiet, which does not hold its peace, and which never belies itself, clear in its obscurity, infallible, imperious, intractable, stubborn to all counsels of the intelligence and to all the dissolvents of reason, and which, in whatever manner destinies are arranged, secretly warns the man-dog of the presence of the man-cat, and the man-fox of the presence of the man-lion.

It gives currency to critical thinking of the sort urgently needed if we are to solve hitherto intractable social issues.

It was not the yellowpredator eye of the great blue heron or the osprey, or the intractable black panther.

Though the breed was first considered intractable, and indeed some consideration was given to their destruction, as too dangerous to be left unharnessed, during the reign of Elizabeth I new methods of harnessing were developed which secured the general domestication of the breed, and they were instrumental in the destruction of the Armada.