Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use refractory in a sentence

15 example sentences · adjective, noun

Refractory means obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something. Example: “For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose.”

Examples of refractory by meaning

adjectiveObstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.

  • For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose.1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna, L.C. Page, →OCLC

adjectiveNot affected by great heat.

  • 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

adjectiveResistant 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

More sentences with refractory

  • The cupola has a small cylindrical chimney-like bore that is lined with a refractory material.2008, Matthew Stein, When Technology Fails, →ISBN. From the entry cupola
  • This may comprise sets of burners firing below refractory or metal frets, or surface combustion plaques.2006, Frank Saxon, editor, Tolley's Industrial and Commercial Gas Installation Practice [Gas Service Technology; 3], 4th edition, Oxford…. From the entry salamander
  • Spodumene alone was found to be too refractory to produce vitrification at cone 11.2000, Mimi Obstler, Out of the Earth, Into the Fire, American Ceramic Society, page 59. From the entry spodumene
  • Miracle is concentrating on a cluster of elements in the centre of the periodic table known as the refractory metals.2016 October 15, James Mitchell Crow, “Forging Ahead”, in New Scientist, number 3095, page 37. From the entry refractory metal
  • Furthermore, we discuss the potential use of our metasurface absorber design in solar thermophotovoltaics by exploiting refractory plasmonic materials.2015, A. K. Azad, W. J. M. Kort-Kamp, M. Sykora, N. R. Weisse-Bernstein, T. S. Luk, A. J. Taylor, D. A. R. Dalvit, H.-T. Chen…. From the entry metasurface
  • The first was a 6-week study on 59 refractory anergically depressed patients which were randomly assigned to tranylcypromine vs. placebo.2014, Kostas N. Fountoulakis, Bipolar Disorder: An Evidence-Based Guide to Manic Depression. From the entry anergically
  • The use of such tempering air has diminished greatly with the shift from refractory to waterwall incinerator construction.2002, Walter R. Niessen, Combustion and Incineration Processes, →ISBN. From the entry waterwall
  • Two other children play about her, and alongside the husband's strong, vigorous figure wrestles with his refractory horse.1904, The Pall Mall Magazine, volume 33, page 150. From the entry pastellic
  • Beneficiation of contaminated material makes up a high portion of refractory recycling costs, underscoring the importance of keeping the material clean on tearout.2012, J.P. Bennett, K.-S. Kwong, “Industrial Applications for Spent Refractory Materials”, in S. K. Sundaram, Dane R. Spearing, John D.…. From the entry beneficiation
  • This can be an acute problem with certain glass-ceramics because of the use of large quantities of lithia, in particular, which readily attack the refractories.1990, A. Paul, Chemistry of Glasses, page 42. From the entry lithia
  • It is administered by IV infusion in the treatment of severe systemic fungal infections and kala-azars in patients refractory to or intolerant of conventional amphotericin B therapy.2010, Mosby's Pocket Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions, 6th edition, St. Louis, MO: Mosby, →ISBN, page 68. From the entry kala-azar

Meaning of refractory

  1. adjective Obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
  2. adjective Not affected by great heat.
  3. adjective Resistant to treatment; not responding adequately to therapy.

Full definition of refractory

Questions about refractory in a sentence

How do you use refractory in a sentence?
Refractory is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose.”
What is a short sentence with refractory?
“Spodumene alone was found to be too refractory to produce vitrification at cone 11.”
What does refractory mean?
Refractory means obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: refractory (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use refractory in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/refractory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.