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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stubbornness

Stubborn \Stub"born\,

  1. [OE. stoburn, stiborn; probably fr. AS. styb a stu

  2. See Stub.] Firm as a stub or stump; stiff; unbending; unyielding; persistent; hence, unreasonably obstinate in will or opinion; not yielding to reason or persuasion; refractory; harsh; -- said of persons and things; as, stubborn wills; stubborn ore; a stubborn oak; as stubborn as a mule. ``Bow, stubborn knees.''
    --Shak. ``Stubborn attention and more than common application.''
    --Locke. ``Stubborn Stoics.''
    --Swift.

    And I was young and full of ragerie [wantonness] Stubborn and strong, and jolly as a pie.
    --Chaucer.

    These heretics be so stiff and stubborn.
    --Sir T. More.

    Your stubborn usage of the pope.
    --Shak.

    Syn: Obstinate; inflexible; obdurate; headstrong; stiff; hardy; firm; refractory; intractable; rugged; contumacious; heady.

    Usage: Stubborn, Obstinate. Obstinate is used of either active or passive persistence in one's views or conduct, in spite of the wishes of others. Stubborn describes an extreme degree of passive obstinacy. -- Stub"born*ly, adv. -- Stub"born*ness, n.

Wiktionary
stubbornness

n. The state of being stubborn.

WordNet
stubbornness
  1. n. the trait of being difficult to handle or overcome [syn: obstinacy, obstinance, mulishness]

  2. resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires [syn: bullheadedness, obstinacy, obstinance, pigheadedness, self-will]

Usage examples of "stubbornness".

His stubbornness became more and more a form of personal courage: this ailing man would not let go.

Esther well knew the stubbornness of which she was capable upon this one question, and the cunningness of it was like her.

The Trellisanians in fact had nothing to bargain with, and they knew it, and this had elicited in the gemot leaders a sudden and surprising stubbornness founded on wounded pride.

Great Meeting, for She-Who-Creates-by-Speaking-Its-Name felt that the animals represented the various elements of human nature adequately, be it vulgarity or greed or guile or ill-temper or pride or stubbornness or any other thing.

It is vain to insist with such stubbornness as that of the classic school of criminology on juristic formulas by which the distinction between illegal appropriation and theft, between fraud and other forms of crime against property, and so forth, is determined, when this method does not give to society one single word which would throw light upon the reasons that make a man a criminal and upon the efficacious remedy by which society could protect itself against criminality.

From the animal kindom have come symbols, such as the fox for cunning, the donkey for stupidity, the mule for stubbornness, and the jackal for trickery.

Molly managed to coax Gracie out of her stubbornness and they walked briskly to where Daisy sat playing with some dry banksia nuts.

She really would have been smarter to wait for night before trying to enter the castle, but now she was in it and would carry through with marish stubbornness.

Ever since his stubbornness had almost turned out so tragically, the resuscitation team had deemed ATXul1024 himATXul0 a dangerous individual and had forbidden him to have anything to do with Elea.

Flowing gilt hair framed her face, a strong-chinned, proud-cheekboned visage which, along with the unshrinking gaze of her wide-set blue eyes, spoke volumes about the legendary stubbornness of the Halogai.

Hood, his immediate opponent, also fell, losing an arm then and a leg later at Chickamauga, but Longstreet still pushed the attack, and the Northern generals who had stood around Sickles resisted with the stubbornness of men who meant to succeed or die.

I seldom spoke before his guests, yet I never felt weary, for in his circle his friends would criticise without slandering, discuss politics without stubbornness, literature without passion, and I profited by all.

Throughout, his stubbornness, pride, defiance, self-reliance, and hardheadedness are revealed.

That modest stubbornness on the part of Communications somehow conveyed, to Hoveler at least, the suggestion that someone closely associated with the Premier Dirac, if not Dirac himself, was trying to get through.

The same leathery old face with the wind and weather wrinkles in it, the same shaggy brows shielding deep-sunk eyes, the same scraggly crop of whiskers, the same sense of forgotten shiftlessness and driven stubbornness.