obstreperous

Borrowed from Latin obstreperus, first attested circa 17th c.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əbˈstɹɛp.əɹ.əs/, /ɒbˈstɹɛp.əɹ.əs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əbˈstɹɛpəɹəs/, /ɑːbˈstɹɛpəɹəs/

• Audio (US)

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obstreperous (comparative more obstreperous, superlative most obstreperous)

1. Attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; boisterous.

   Synonyms: clamorous, loud, noisy, vociferous

   • 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 7:

     [O]n a clear still summer evening you may hear from the battery of New York the obstreperous peals of broad-mouthed laughter of the Dutch negroes at Communipaw.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came":

     […] my hope

     Dwindled into a ghost not fit to cope

     With that obstreperous joy success would bring

   • 1918, Henry B. Fuller, On the Stairs, ch. 3:

     He developed an obstreperous baritone […] and he made himself rather preponderant, whether he happened to know the song or not.

2. Stubbornly defiant; disobedient; resistant to authority or control, whether in a noisy manner or not.

   Synonyms: recalcitrant, uncooperative, unruly; see also Thesaurus:obstinate

   • 1827, Sir Walter Scott, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, October 1827:

     [W]e came to Whittingham. Thence to Newcastle, where an obstreperous horse retarded us for an hour at least.

   • 1903, Lucy Maud Montgomery, "A Sandshore Wooing" in Short Stories: 1902-1903:

     My dress was draggled, my hat had slipped back, and the kinks and curls of my obstreperous hair were something awful.

   • 1915, Stewart Edward White, The Gray Dawn, ch. 70:

     They reviled the committee collectively and singly; bragged that they would shoot Coleman, Truett, Durkee, and some others at sight; flourished weapons, and otherwise became so publicly and noisily obstreperous that the committee decided they needed a lesson.

   • 2015, Penny Dreadful S2E9, 3 min

     This is what your boyfriend did, honey. When he was in one of his more obstreperous moods.

• obstreperously
• obstreperousness
• stroppy