refractory
UK/ɹɪˈfɹæk.tə.ɹi//ɹɪˈfɹæk.təɹ.i/
refractory adjective: obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
Adjective
refractory (comparative more refractory, superlative most refractory)
- Obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
- […] in most instances attempts to coerce the refractory and disobedient have been the signals of bloody wars, […]1787, Alexander Hamilton, “No. 16”, in The Federalist, published 1863, page 103
- Mr. Weller knocked at the door, and after a pretty long interval—occupied by the party without, in whistling a tune, and by the party within, in persuading a refractory flat candle to allow itself to be lighted […]1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 26”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- contrary, fractious, adamant, ardent, grim, untiring, bent on, bloody-minded, bullheaded, certain
- Not affected by great heat.
- Pure lime is extremely refractory, but readily fusible if any silex is brought in contact with it; […]1855, Frederick Overman, A Treatise on Metallurgy, page 315
- There are also over 1,200 pallet brick wagons used for the conveyance of refractory bricks.1959 January, “Developments in Freight Transport”, in Railway Magazine, page 50
- Synonyms:
- heat-resistant, fireproof
- Resistant to treatment; not responding adequately to therapy.
- Many of the vague and refractory cases of neck and shoulder pain and of migraine may be due to cervical disc disease.1949, Albert Fields, John Hoesley, “Neck and Shoulder Pain”, in Calif. Med., 70(6):478-482
- In 33 adult patients with long standing refractory epilepsy on treatment with one or two standard anti-convulsant drugs,1990, H. A. Ring et al., “Vigabatrin: rational treatment for chronic epilepsy”, in J. Neurol. Neurosurg.Psychiatry, 53(12):1051-1055
- Incapable of registering a reaction or stimulus.
- The production of a generator potential leaves a refractory state in the receptor membrane […]1959, Nobusada Ishiko, Werner R. Loewenstein, “Electrical output of a receptor membrane”, in Science, 130:1405-6
- The […] delivery of external stimuli […] delineates the pacemaker refractory period after the emission of a pacing stimulus and after the sensing of a spontaneous beat.1970, S.S. Barold et al., “Chest wall stimulation in evaluation of patients with implanted ventricular-inhibited demand pacemakers”, in Br. Heart J., 32(6):783-789
Noun
refractory (plural refractories)
- A material or piece of material, such as a brick, that has a very high melting point.
- A plant or factory that produces such material.
refractory meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
refractory in Tamil
- வெப்பமழிக்காப்பொருள், எளிதிலுருகா, வெப்பமளிக்காப்பொருள், அனல்தாங்கு, தீச்செங்கல் உருகாப் பொருள், சீருக்கிடங்கொடுக்காத
refractory in Urdu
- refractory, untractable, disobedient, stubborn, perverse
- صعب sa'b
refractory in Malayalam
- stubborn, obstinate, mulish
- ദുശ്ശാഠ്യമുള്ള, മെരുങ്ങാത്ത, ദുർദ്ദമ, മെരുക്കാൻ പ്രയാസമുള്ള, വഴങ്ങാത്ത, നികൃത
refractory in Kannada
- refractory
- ಮೊಂಡು moṇḍu
More languagesFewer languages
- refractory in Sanskrit
- वाम vā́ma
- refractory in Indonesian
- refrakter
Examples of refractory in a sentence
- The cupola has a small cylindrical chimney-like bore that is lined with a refractory material.
- This may comprise sets of burners firing below refractory or metal frets, or surface combustion plaques.
- Spodumene alone was found to be too refractory to produce vitrification at cone 11.
Synonyms of refractory
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- chronic
- confirmed
- determined
- diehard
- dogged
- hard-hearted
- hard-nosed
- hardheaded
- headstrong
- immovable
- incalcitrant
- inflexible
- insistent
- intractable
- intransigent
- intrepid
- inveterate
- mulish
- obdurate
- obstinate
- obstreperous
- peremptory
- persistent
- pertinacious
- pigheaded
- recalcitrant
- resolute
- resolved
- rigid
- self-willed
Forms of refractory
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more refractory |
| superlative | most refractory |
| Noun | |
| plural | refractories |
Origin of refractory
From Latin refractārius (“obstinate”), from refrāctus, past participle of refringere (“to break up”). Originally refractary, refractarie, but reanalysed after other adjectives in -ory.
Words formed from refractory
Phrases with refractory
Words that rhyme with refractory
Questions about refractory
- What does refractory mean?
- Refractory means obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
- What is refractory in Tamil?
- Refractory in Tamil is வெப்பமழிக்காப்பொருள், எளிதிலுருகா, வெப்பமளிக்காப்பொருள். See Refractory meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is refractory?
- Refractory can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce refractory?
- Refractory is pronounced /ɹɪˈfɹæk.tə.ɹi/ (UK).
Words near refractory in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: refractory (page history and authors); refractory (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); صعب (Urdu) (page history and authors); refractory (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ಮೊಂಡು (Kannada) (page history and authors); वाम (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-refractory.ogg, en-au-refractory.ogg.
Cite this entry: “refractory.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/refractory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.