Adjective

(en adjective)

given to troublemaking

irritable; argumentative; quarrelsome

* {{quote-news, year=2014

, date=November 14 , author=Stephen Halliday , title=Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero , work=The Scotsman citation , page= , passage=Flair and invention were very much at a premium, suffocated by the relentless pace and often fractious nature of proceedings. The absence of James Morrison from the centre of Scotland’s midfield, the West Brom man ruled out on the morning of the game by illness, had already diminished the creative capacity of the home side in that department.}}

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation

, passage=That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past. }}

* 1847 , ,

…in his present fractious mood, she dared whisper no observations, nor ask of him any information.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Contemptuous of authority; willfully disobedient; rebellious.

* 1671 , (John Milton), “(Samson Agonistes)” in The Poetical Works of John Milton , volume 4 (edited by Henry John Todd; published in 1801), page 505:

The queen hears of it; takes occa?ion to pa??e wher he is, on purpo?e, that, under prætense of recon?iling to him, or ?eeking to draw a kind retractation from him of the cen?ure on the marriage; to which end ?he ?ends a courtier before, to ?ound whether he might be per?uaded to mitigate his ?entence; which not finding, ?he her?elf craftily a??ays; and, on his con?tancie, ?ounds an accu?ation to Herod of a contumacious affront, on ?uch a day, before many peers; præpares the king to ?ome pa??ion, and at la?t, by her daughter’s dancing, effects it.

* 1837 , (Thomas Carlyle), The French Revolution , Book 2.V:

In all places too are Dissident Priests; whom the Legislative will have to deal with: contumacious individuals, working on that angriest of passions; plotting, enlisting.

(legal) Willfully disobedient to the summons or orders of a court.