stubborn

Meanings

Adjective

• Refusing to move or to change one's opinion; obstinate; firmly resisting; persistent in doing something.
• Of materials: physically stiff and inflexible; not easily melted or worked.

Noun

• Stubbornness.
• A disease of citrus trees characterized by stunted growth and misshapen fruit, caused by Spiroplasma citri (species).

Related

Similar words

• willful, headstrong, wayward, obstinate, obdurate, contrary, disobedient, insubordinate, undisciplined, adamant, unyielding, rebellious

Origin

• From Middle English stiborne, stibourne, stoburn, stoburne, styburne, stiborn. Origin uncertain.
• One theory is that the origin may come from *stybor, *stibor, from Old English stybb + adj. formative -or as in Old English bitor, English bitter.