Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pertinacious \Per`ti*na"cious\, a. [L. pertinax, -acis; per + tenax tenacious. See Per-, and Tenacious.]
Holding or adhering to any opinion, purpose, or design, with obstinacy; perversely persistent; obstinate; as, pertinacious plotters; a pertinacious beggar.
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Resolute; persevering; constant; steady.
Diligence is a steady, constant, and pertinacious study.
--South.Syn: Obstinate; stubborn; inflexible; unyielding; resolute; determined; firm; constant; steady. [1913 Webster] -- Per`ti*na"cious*ly, adv. -- Per`ti*na"cious*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1620s, from pertinacy (late 14c.; see pertinacity) + -ous. Related: Pertinaciously.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Holding tenaciously to an opinion or purpose. 2 stubborn resolute or tenacious.
WordNet
adj. stubbornly unyielding; "dogged persistence"; "dour determination"; "the most vocal and pertinacious of all the critics"; "a mind not gifted to discover truth but tenacious to hold it"- T.S.Eliot; "men tenacious of opinion" [syn: bulldog, dogged, dour, tenacious, unyielding]
Usage examples of "pertinacious".
Having taken his line, Buller set about his task in a slow, deliberate, but pertinacious fashion.
Yet the trial was so managed, and juries were found so obstinate, that notwithstanding the appearance of the most pertinacious prosecution on the part of the crown, a conviction could not be obtained.
Whatever I did, that idea would bother me: it was so tiresomely pertinacious that I resolved on requesting leave to go to Wuthering Heights, and assist in the last duties to the dead.
The commandos were like those pertinacious flies which buzz upwards when a hand approaches them, but only to settle again in the same place.
When she is gone, he goes down too, and returning with his cobweb-covered bottle, devotes himself to a leisurely enjoyment of its contents, now and then, as he throws his head back in his chair, catching sight of the pertinacious Roman pointing from the ceiling.
These and twenty such like questions were proposed and answered, with as much beggarly logick and earnestness as was ever heard to proceed from the mouth of the pertinacious schismatick.