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Obstreperous vs Refractory - What's the difference?

obstreperous | refractory |

As adjectives the difference between obstreperous and refractory

is that obstreperous is attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; boisterous while refractory is obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.

As a noun refractory is

a material or piece of material, such as a brick, that has a very high melting point.

obstreperous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; boisterous.
  • * 1809 , , 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 , , "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 , , 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.
  • Stubbornly defiant; disobedient; resistant to authority or control, whether in a noisy manner or not.
  • * 1827 , , 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 , , "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 , , 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.

    Synonyms

    * (making a tumultuous noise) clamorous, loud, noisy, vociferous * (noisily defiant) recalcitrant, uncooperative, unruly

    Derived terms

    * obstreperously * obstreperousness * stroppy

    refractory

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
  • *
  • * 1836 , ,
  • 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
  • Not affected by great heat.
  • * '>citation
  • (medicine) Difficult to treat.
  • * 1949 , Albert Fields and John Hoesley, " Neck and Shoulder Pain", Calif. Med. , 70(6):478–482.,
  • Many of the vague and refractory cases of neck and shoulder pain and of migraine may be due to cervical disc disease.
  • * 1990 , H. A. Ring et al'', " Vigabatrin: rational treatment for chronic epilepsy", ''J. Neurol. Neurosurg.Psychiatry , 53(12):1051–1055,
  • In 33 adult patients with long standing refractory epilepsy on treatment with one or two standard anti-convulsant drugs,
  • (biology) Incapable of registering a reaction or stimulus.
  • * 1959 , Nobusada Ishiko and Werner R. Loewenstein, " Electrical output of a receptor membrane]", [[w:Science (journal), Science] , 1959, 130:1405-6,
  • The production of a generator potential leaves a refractory state in the receptor membrane
  • * 1970 , S.S. Barold et al'', " Chest wall stimulation in evaluation of patients with implanted ventricular-inhibited demand pacemakers", ''Br. Heart J. , 32(6):783–789,
  • The delineates the pacemaker refractory period after the emission of a pacing stimulus and after the sensing of a spontaneous beat.

    Synonyms

    * (obstinate) contrary (inanimates), fractious

    Derived terms

    * refractorily * refractoriness * refractory period

    Noun

    (refractories)
  • A material or piece of material, such as a brick, that has a very high melting point.