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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
unruly
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
hair
▪ You can spot her by her unruly hair and her shocking-pink work suit.
▪ Hoppy ran his fingers through his unruly hair.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A family attempts to cope with the eruption into their lives of an unruly aunt.
▪ Gardeners regularly stroll the grounds, picking up stray pieces of trash and trimming unruly bushes.
▪ In recent years, however, the fundamentalist camp has grown unruly.
▪ She cried her heart out, all because of an unruly trouble-making, black-hearted child who was ripping her apart.
▪ So in May Disney obtained permission to move 100 of the bald, hunch-backed and unruly birds 60 miles away.
▪ They recruited their soldiers from the more adventurous or the more unruly on their route.
▪ You can spot her by her unruly hair and her shocking-pink work suit.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Unruly

Unruly \Un*rul"y\, a. [Compar. Unrulier, superl. Unruliest.] Not submissive to rule; disregarding restraint; disposed to violate; turbulent; ungovernable; refractory; as, an unruly boy; unruly boy; unruly conduct.

But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
--James iii. 8.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
unruly

"disposed to resist lawful restraint," c.1400, from un- (1) "not" + obsolete ruly (adj.) "amenable to rule." Related: Unruliness.

Wiktionary
unruly

a. wild; uncontrolled

WordNet
unruly
  1. adj. noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline; "a boisterous crowd"; "a social gathering that became rambunctious and out of hand"; "a robustious group of teenagers"; "beneath the rumbustious surface of his paintings is sympathy for the vulnerability of ordinary human beings"; "an unruly class" [syn: boisterous, rambunctious, robustious, rumbustious]

  2. unwilling to submit to authority; "unruly teenagers" [syn: disobedient]

  3. of persons; "the little boy's parents think he is spirited, but his teacher finds him unruly" [syn: indocile, uncontrollable, ungovernable]

  4. [also: unruliest, unrulier]

Usage examples of "unruly".

Niall, his dark eyes betraying a hint of apprehension from beneath his thick silver hair, struck his staff on the bridge several times in an effort to silence the increasingly unruly throng, but the clamor continued unabated.

Until the next day, much to her surprise, the two most obstreperous and unruly students in her class had offered to do it for her.

He was a naturally aggressive and overbearing man but Kaft had the knack of making him feel adolescent and unruly.

My pet dodo Pickwick followed with her unruly son Alan padding grumpily after her.

Dysart had said Cornelius was older than his contemporaries at Breakspear and this man did indeed look nearer fifty than forty, unruly iron-grey hair framing a gaunt high-boned face, the brow hooded enough and the nose sufficiently hooked to add a sinewy hint of predacity to his relaxed and smiling features.

Robin Trower knew exactly what he was doing and had his unruly instrument under control.

In the framework of Strongbowism events were random and haphazard and life was unruly and unruled, given to whimsy in the beginning and shaken by chaos at the end, a kind of unbroken sensual wheel made up of many sexes and ages revolving through time on the point of an orgasm.

To these two he would always be an unruly boy, though by now he is as old and grizzled as they, and the last tinge of color will soon be gone from his own whitening fur.

Three other sons were engendered by Heaven and Earth, who were very Mighty and powerful, not to be lightly or frequently mentioned, Cottus, Briareus, Gyges, unruly and troublesome children, 145 For from their shoulders a hundred hands unattractively sprouted.

The unruly beast presently reared himself on end on his hind legs, and threw his lovely burthen from his back, and Jones caught her in his arms.

Besides the before-mentioned motive assigned to the present behaviour of Jones, the reader will be likewise pleased to recollect in his favour, that he was not at this time perfect master of that wonderful power of reason, which so well enables grave and wise men to subdue their unruly passions, and to decline any of these prohibited amusements.

The Jugged Hare, Corson had liked everything about him, from the unruly black hair falling into his face to the long, powerfully-built legs that made him fully as tall as she.

They were like a pack of unruly manitou, teasing little mysteries, forever following her about, asking questions, laying tricks, meeting her accusing looks with their guileless open gazes.

The Titans used the technique as an easy, nondestructive method of shutting Quentin down whenever he grew too unruly.

The coastline ran generally northeastward, and for much of its distance, offshore islands and bars formed a naturally protected waterway, as if God had meant to make his exploration safe from the whims of the unruly sea.