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obstinate
in a sentence

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  • And I've had enough of you too - you beastly, stuck-up, obstinate pig!   (source)
    obstinate = stubborn
  • "I'll do as I choose and go as I please," said Bilbo obstinately.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • 'Not "S"; it's "Z,"' repeated Petra, obstinately.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly unyielding to the wishes of others
  • ...a faint spark of hope, obstinately refusing to die, brought him out each dawn to scour the heavens for a sign.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • He did his work in the same slow obstinate way as he had done it in Jones's time, never shirking and never volunteering for extra work either.   (source)
    obstinate = stubborn
  • Vera said obstinately:   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • "All the same," he insisted obstinately, "Othello's good, Othello's better than those feelies."   (source)
  • I know that age, it's a particularly obstinate one, and a thousand bogies won't make you fear the future.   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding
  • You know how obstinate men are when they get their backs up.   (source)
    obstinate = stubborn
  • Don't he obstinate, darling... .   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • It said roughly and obstinately, "A man isn't afraid of a thing like that."   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly unyielding to the wishes of others
  • He would not explain himself, but remained obstinately seated on his bed all the time I remained with him.   (source)
  • Freddy backed up Eliza in her obstinate refusal to believe that they could save money by engaging a bookkeeper with some knowledge of the business.   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • Even then, even then, there remained in his heart an obstinate nerve insisting that at least St. Francis would not utterly have condemned him,   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding
  • There is nothing more to do except to pray and I haven't much hope that that'll do much good because, Marilla, I do not believe that God Himself can do very much with such an obstinate person as Mrs. Barry.   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • Beyond the river he saw a goods train winding out of Kingsbridge Station, like a worm with a fiery head winding through the darkness, obstinately and laboriously.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly (unyielding)
  • a look of relentless obstinacy crept into the habitually lazy blue eyes.   (source)
    obstinacy = the trait of being stubborn in not doing what others want
  • He had a great deal of work to do, and could not waste more time on a boy who seemed to him insanely obstinate.   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • Marvel, head down, and lugging back obstinately, was forced to the kitchen door, and the bolts were drawn.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate man.   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • But he obstinately took roundabout ways, and presently he was where he could see long gray walls of vapor where lay battle lines.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • But my mother, frightened as she was, would not consent to take a fraction more than was due to her and was obstinately unwilling to be content with less.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • Now, then, little Miss Obstinate.   (source)
  • "You are very obstinate," said the Doctor.   (source)
  • Knowing your natural temper better than I, he could the better judge what arguments to use, whether of tenderness or terror, such as might prevail over your hardness and obstinacy, insomuch that you should no longer hide the name of him who tempted you to this grievous fall.   (source)
    obstinacy = trait of being stubbornly unyielding to the wishes of others
  • not looking at her, but obstinately looking at the opposite side of the room,   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • "The prettiest are always further!" she said at last, with a sigh at the obstinacy of the rushes in growing so far off,   (source)
    obstinacy = trait of being stubbornly unyielding to the wishes of others
  • The anatomical fact of this labyrinth is indisputable; and that the supposition founded upon it is reasonable and true, seems the more cogent to me, when I consider the otherwise inexplicable obstinacy of that leviathan in HAVING HIS SPOUTINGS OUT, as the fishermen phrase it.   (source)
    obstinacy = trait of always (in a manner that is stubbornly unyielding despite resistance)
  • The perverse creature had obstinately resisted our attempts to bring her with us,   (source)
    obstinately = in a manner that was stubbornly unyielding to the wishes of others
  • ...but he was as obstinate as a mule,   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • obstinately persisted in manacling their deputies with...   (source)
  • a thoroughly obstinate enemy of the prince   (source)
    obstinate = stubborn
  • But I became obstinate and smug, and wouldn't tell.†   (source)
  • She'd often had to battle Paul's obstinacy, but as soon as his father entered the room, the little rascal acted as though butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.†   (source)
  • "It's my book," said Thackeray Porringer, obstinately.†   (source)
  • Some obstinate, contrary part of him still couldn't bear it.†   (source)
  • When they urged her to hurry, she obstinately refused.†   (source)
  • Mostly he misses Jutta: her loyalty, her obstinacy, the way she always seems to recognize what is right.†   (source)
  • Stand still, Kirsti, Annemarie ordered silently, praying that somehow the obstinate five-year-old would receive the message.†   (source)
  • I could tell that because the obstinate, competitive look left his face as his mind became engaged for the first time.†   (source)
  • The gold stamping still obstinately showed through the layers, but the deep red had become a dark burgundy.†   (source)
  • She would simply wait on the bridge, calm and obstinate, until events, real events, not her own fantasies, rose to her challenge, and dispelled her insignificance.†   (source)
  • A Horse, born in 1918, destined to be obstinate and frank to the point of tactlessness.†   (source)
  • Then after two shaky steps she turned obstinate.†   (source)
  • Jose wasn't there, but a new, thick-shouldered guy (Marco V, according to his nametag) stepped in front of me and cut me off with a blocky, obstinate stance less like a doorman's than a security guard's.†   (source)
  • He was awed by her obstinate strength, her endurance.†   (source)
  • When he looks up, it's a less obstinate Olly staring back at me.†   (source)
  • And yet he wasn't completely obstinate.†   (source)
  • But I obstinately held on to our argument; I was right, and he was going to admit it.†   (source)
  • She had the same obstinate scowl my old girlfriend Cyrene used to get whenever she wrestled lions.†   (source)
  • They were an obstinate lot, it would take a long time to persuade one of them to go with him,†   (source)
  • I sat in the tiny, cheap hotel room we had rented and tried to reason with her, but it did no good. She was obstinate.†   (source)
  • ...seemed to be pushing at the trolley before him, which for some reason had taken on an obstinate immobility.†   (source)
  • There is a lump in my throat as hard as a pebble, smooth and obstinate.†   (source)
  • He only called me E'lir when he thought I was being especially willfully obstinate.†   (source)
  • Without intending to, without even knowing it, he demonstrated with his life that his father had been right when he repeated until his dying day that there was no one with more common sense, no stonecutter more obstinate, no manager more lucid or dangerous, than a poet.†   (source)
  • You are obstinate.†   (source)
  • One obstinately or intolerably devoted to his own church, party, belief, or opinion.'†   (source)
  • For while he was about to say that he didn't think that that was quite fair (a thought to which the obstinate Soundkeeper might not have taken kindly) he suddenly discovered the way he would carry his little sound from the fortress.†   (source)
  • But Laurella turned away from these suggestions with the hopeless, pliable obstinacy of the weak.†   (source)
  • It was always hard with Teresa, she had an air of deprivation and a plainness that seemed obstinate—she was overweight and willfully unpretty and seemed to be saying that daddy loves me exactly the way I am but my mother doesn't, my mother thinks I can be better and smarter and know better and smarter people.†   (source)
  • Her distinguishing characteristic is obstinacy.†   (source)
  • The intricate obstinacies of village mullahs opposed to educating girls were invisible from this altitude, Mortenson thought.†   (source)
  • "Are you certain you want her, if she's so obstinate?"†   (source)
  • They even joined forces with him to lure Blanca out of her determined obstinacy.†   (source)
  • 'No, that wouldn't drive the yellowbelly back,' Chief White Halfoat disagreed obstinately.†   (source)
  • "Althea doesn't mean to be obstinate; she's just naturally mulish.†   (source)
  • They were ready to fight as obstinately against a foreign army as against an umbrella that refused to move out of their way.†   (source)
  • It was the kind of obstinate, determined face that with a spyglass held to the eye and a ponytail wouldn't have been out of place on the deck of an English man-of-war.†   (source)
  • The St. James's Chronicle wrote contemptuously of "a foolish, obstinate, and unrelenting King."†   (source)
  • We know you can be obstinate.†   (source)
  • As a professional he was obstinate and almost pathologically focused on the job at hand.†   (source)
  • Celia saw her son age in these photographs, watched his mouth acquire his father's obstinate expression.†   (source)
  • If the Post was as obstinate and relentless as a rat terrier crazed by the scent of rodents—which it was—it was redeemed, for Joe, by the nonpartisan nature of its fury.†   (source)
  • I really did, but it was ten million degrees in the library, and Finn was being an obstinate jerk.†   (source)
  • He looked obstinate and drained.†   (source)
  • Observers have described Charlestonians as vainglorious, obstinate, mercurial, verbose, xenophobic, and congenitally gracious.†   (source)
  • I recognize anger in a certain arch of Mom's spine; obstinacy, doubleclenched in her jaw; the tip of chin signaling imminent tears.†   (source)
  • And nearly every time subsequently that I have fallen and darkness has come over me, they have obstinately arisen, not as they were, but brighter.†   (source)
  • He had these spells of unexplained obstinacy, where his face would grow set and pinched and no one could get through to him.†   (source)
  • But caution can deteriorate into obstinacy, perverseness, or disingenuity.†   (source)
  • His obstinacy made her angry.†   (source)
  • "I want to know why I failed," Hisham insisted obstinately.†   (source)
  • If she was a child she was not a stupid child but an obstinate one.†   (source)
  • They were extremely affectionate with one another, but, alas, the many pages in my notebook which had been hopefully reserved for detailed comments on the sexual behavior and activities of wolves remained obstinately blank as far as George and Angeline were concerned.†   (source)
  • With linear obstinacy they grew louder.†   (source)
  • Scrawled in pencil, it was testimony indeed to the imperfect command of written English of which Sophie had so recently lamented to me, but also to the influence of German, which she had learned from her father so many years before in Cracow and which until this moment I had not realized had embedded itself with such obstinacy, like cornices and moldings of Gothic stone, in her mind's architecture.†   (source)
  • The chair contains a girl of 20, ANNIE SULLIVAN, with a face which in repose is grave and rather obstinate, and when active is impudent, combative, twinkling with all the life that is lacking in HELEN'S, and handsome; there is a crude vitality to her.†   (source)
  • He too took an obstinate look, and after a moment he came over to the desk.†   (source)
  • Her absurd, obstinate Yurochka has relented at last, thank heaven, we are going to a nice, safe place, where people are more sensible than we are, where you can be sure of law and order.†   (source)
  • BERENGER: You really can be obstinate, sometimes.†   (source)
  • Again with the strange obstinate set to her face.†   (source)
  • It is not intended to justify independence for the sake ofindependence, obstinacy to all compromise or excessively proud and stubborn adherence to one's own personal convictions.†   (source)
  • But it's an obstinate case.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, and though you have heinously offended the King's Majesty, we hope if you will even now forthink and repent of your obstinate opinions, you may . still taste his gracious pardon.†   (source)
  • For he clung obstinately to the belief, in spite of Slatter and the Sergeant, that the causes of the murder must be looked for a long way back, and that it was they which were important.†   (source)
  • ...all the bitterness which really flows from thwarted self-righteousness and obstinacy and...   (source)
    obstinacy = the trait of being stubborn in not doing what others want
  • But there he ran up against the obstinacy of the Admiral.   (source)
    obstinacy = trait of being stubborn and unyielding to other's wishes
  • "All the same, I should like it all plain and clear," said he obstinately,   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • And if you're an obstinate, positive man, like Mr. Strange, you'll never consider the possibility of having been mistaken.   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • With the obstinacy of his order, he protested against being dragged in a chosen direction.   (source)
    obstinacy = the trait of being stubborn in not doing what others want
  • "Well, I'd like to talk to you about it," said Zeena obstinately.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • refuses for some obstinate reason or other to say anything at all about those statements   (source)
  • And with this gentle, but unconquerable obstinacy did he resist all her entreaties.   (source)
    obstinacy = the trait of being stubborn in not doing what others want
  • Tom's always very compliant to me; I don't think he's so obstinate.   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • There was something extremely provoking in this obstinately pacific system;   (source)
  • Violet is certainly very obstinate.   (source)
  • ...a blonde dimpled girl of eighteen, who has vainly tried to chastise her curly auburn hair into smoothness under her brown bonnet: the hair ripples as obstinately as a brooklet under the March breeze, and the little ringlets burst away from the restraining comb behind and show themselves below the bonnet-crown.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly unyielding to the wishes of others
  • There's a obstinate pauper for you!'   (source)
    obstinate = stubbornly unyielding to other's wishes
  • This was only invincible obstinacy.   (source)
    obstinacy = stubbornness
  • He stayed obstinately at that thought.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly
  • The old man made a gesture of resignation, though his rigid features still betrayed his obstinate adherence to a distrust, which he derived from a sort of hereditary contempt of his enemy, rather than from any present signs which might warrant so uncharitable a feeling.   (source)
    obstinate = stubborn
  • And every morning, perched on our stays, rows of these birds were seen; and spite of our hootings, for a long time obstinately clung to the hemp, as though they deemed our ship some drifting, uninhabited craft; a thing appointed to desolation, and therefore fit roosting-place for their homeless selves.   (source)
    obstinately = stubbornly unyielding to the wishes of others
  • It's not valid, he repeated obstinately.†   (source)
  • Fredriksson sat obstinately silent and refused to answer.†   (source)
  • Ursula gave in, as always, to her husband's unyielding obstinacy.†   (source)
  • The corruption came from blindness, the lies from obstinacy and embarrassment.†   (source)
  • [His] obstinacy…. will cause him to foment a thousand unfortunate incidents ….†   (source)
  • She seemed to be considering not what I said, but my person, my obstinacy.†   (source)
  • 'Well, I saw what I saw, and I saw what I didn't,' said Mugwort obstinately.†   (source)
  • "I'll get out of the mess my own way," said Dick obstinately.†   (source)
  • And thou didst it of thine obstinacy.†   (source)
  • And your obstinacy is wearing on mine.†   (source)
  • Already I could see Toddy pointing me out to an elderly couple who were smiling expectantly at me, like they were about to totter over and introduce themselves, and obstinately I turned my back.†   (source)
  • In the world on which we finally slammed the door today I frequently mingled with magicians, wizards, and witches, and I very often had to deal with their obstinacy.†   (source)
  • In addition to coming from a landlord family, your father committed some serious mistakes during the Antirightist Movement several years ago, but he still obstinately refuses to confess.†   (source)
  • The old man's obstinacy seemed natural to them, not because, as it was too easy to say, old age had made him less visionary than he had always been, but because renouncing the monopoly must have seemed to him like throwing away the victories of a historic battle that he and his brothers had waged unaided, back in heroic times, against powerful adversaries from all over the world.†   (source)
  • If Nasuada was frustrated by Elva's obstinacy, she did not allow it to show, although her expression was stern, as befitted the discussion.†   (source)
  • She had obstinately refused to say that anything untoward had occurred, and in any case she was fifteen and legal.†   (source)
  • They should all be vigorous but not too obstinately persisted in, except that which is designed to turn the left of the rebels, which should be pushed as far as it will go.†   (source)
  • 'No road,' he repeated obstinately.†   (source)
  • He trudged heavily, obstinately, taking a peculiar pleasure in the thought that the soles of his feet must be cut to ribbons.†   (source)
  • And men often have enough followers to sacrifice the interests of society to their vanity, conceit, and obstinacy.†   (source)
  • "Miss Sessions," he said, "I wear my hair longer than most men, and the barber is always deeply grieved at my obstinacy.†   (source)
  • He held onto it obstinately.†   (source)
  • He offered him his friendship, invited him to bathe in champagne, tried to make him understand that the females of his family had insides made of flint, but he could not weaken his obstinacy.†   (source)
  • And yet they survived, displaying the same obstinacy and fortitude that kept their ancestors in Palancar Valley despite famine, war, and pestilence.†   (source)
  • I cannot credit it, yet I know the sin which most easily besets him is obstinacy, and a mistaken policy.†   (source)
  • The town had been isolated for decades, a colony that obstinately refused to be incorporated into Spain.†   (source)
  • [He] has a rigidity, an arrogance, and an obstinacy that will cause him to foment a thousand unfortunate incidents ….†   (source)
  • Ursula admitted him grudgingly, conquered once more by the obstinacy of her husband, who could not tolerate the idea that an offshoot of his blood should be adrift, but he imposed the condition that the child should never know his true identity.†   (source)
  • One August afternoon, overcome by the unbearable weight of her own obstinacy, Amaranta locked herself in her bedroom to weep over her solitude unto death after giving her final answer to her tenacious suitor: "Let's forget about each other forever," she told him.†   (source)
  • A flicker of amusement touched the young man's face as he observed the startled but controlled and obstinately blank faces which turned toward him for a moment and then away.†   (source)
  • Murrell was left behind, but he was proud of the dispersal, as if he had done it, as if he had always known that three men in simply being together and doing a thing can, by their obstinacy, take the pride out of one another.†   (source)
  • He seemed detached; but kept glancing curiously, with an undercurrent of uneasiness, at Dick, whose face was obstinately set and miserable.†   (source)
  • Dick went back to work, shrugging his shoulders at her obstinacy, hoping that her illness would pass.†   (source)
  • He asked her for advice, looked boyishly pleased when she picked up a cushion and trailed after him off to the lands; yet, when she made suggestions his face shut into dark obstinacy, and he began defending himself.†   (source)
  • … But Laila was thinking of Mammy, as obstinate and uncompromising as the Mujahideen,†   (source)
  • ...but it's never a good idea to nag and push a man, as it only makes them the more obstinate.†   (source)
  • I see the old anger, an obstinate woman who's survived years of bleeding ulcers.†   (source)
  • He walked to the door of the restaurant and held it open with an obstinate expression.†   (source)
  • Just as obstinate as her father always was.†   (source)
  • He examined my obstinate expression, and switched to another line of attack.†   (source)
  • He is obstinate and corruptly brave, but I am sure he knows what he will not tell us.†   (source)
  • It's called dumb, or, if you like, obstinate stupidity.†   (source)
  • ] GRANDMOTHER-JACQUES: Still as obstinate as ever!†   (source)
  • He returned frowning, his face obstinate but whistling jauntily.†   (source)
  • Like all horses accustomed to a succession of strange riders the beast is obstinate, with a hard mouth, and tries twice to scrape him against fences.†   (source)
  • Bend, you obstinate child!†   (source)
  • Song Po-po said that he had always been stubborn, and since his son-in-law had been executed as a counterrevolutionary, he had become even more obstinate and solitary.†   (source)
  • Thanks for that," he said bemusedly, tucking his gun under his arm and beginning to pluck and fumble with the string, which Boris had tied in an obstinate little knot.†   (source)
  • Of course Mother will be as obstinate about her death as she has been about every detail of her life.†   (source)
  • Ji-yong was feeling obstinate.†   (source)
  • Dustfinger gave the obstinate car a final kick, and they all clambered back up to the road, sweating.†   (source)
  • When he paused to rest his arms, he once again pulled Orik's puzzle ring from his belt and struggled to arrange the obstinate gold bands into the correct pattern.†   (source)
  • Then the sound would come back, and I would see the Seeker's obstinate face in my head, her protruding eyes scouring the blank desert for some sign of humans.†   (source)
  • Obstinate fool!†   (source)
  • I declined mine, explaining to a disgruntled Jamie that I couldn't talk and chew at the same time; I suspected that he would save one for me, obstinate as ever.†   (source)
  • He tried over and over again to break through her obstinate silence and force her to acknowledge his existence.†   (source)
  • On the other hand, when the causes of the sedition inflame the resentments of the majority party, they might be obstinate and inexorable when policy demands clemency.†   (source)
  • …stringy-looking creature, despite her height; the narrow back was hooped like that of an old woman and the shoulders indrawn, so that the chest was cramped, and sent forth a wheezy, flatted voice that sorted ill with her inches; her round eyes had no speculation in them; her short chin was obstinate without power; the thin, half-gray hair that wanted to curl feebly about her lined forehead was stripped away and twisted in a knot no bigger than a walnut, at the back of a bent head.†   (source)
  • "He's older and has an exceptional record, but he also has a reputation for being crusty and obstinate.†   (source)
  • Gimli was obstinate.†   (source)
  • But Miaas had grown more and more obstinate, and Salander became less and less willing to discuss the matter.†   (source)
  • He was obstinate, affectionate, devoted to his wife and children, who numbered fifteen—again it was a matter of scale.†   (source)
  • _ Obstinate silence.†   (source)
  • But his want of candor, his obstinate prejudices of both aversion and attachment, his real partiality in spite of all his pretensions, his low notions about many things, have so utterly reconciled me to [his departure] …. that I will not weep.†   (source)
  • Her obstinate resistance and the extra work this made for the staff led to a suspension of the medication.†   (source)
  • And in the evening if it turned chilly, as it sometimes did after the heavy rains, he was a comfort to everyone, for the whole party would come and sit with their backs against his hot sides and get well warmed and dried; and one puff of his fiery breath would light the most obstinate fire.†   (source)
  • Soon after this I had the signature and consent of every parent except Cindy Lou's mother and the obstinate earth mother, Edna Graves.†   (source)
  • KELLER: Obstinate.†   (source)
  • BERENGER: But I would like to say how sorry I am for being so insistent …. and so obstinate …. and getting so angry …. in fact ….†   (source)
  • It was many months later before I learned how Piedmont had probably handled vexing problems with the semiliterate though obstinate workers who greased looms on the midnight shift and rocked the vessel of obedience in defiance of the invisible capitalists who ruled the mills from far away.†   (source)
  • JAMES: Obstinate.†   (source)
  • I can't stand obstinate people.†   (source)
  • But why is he so obstinate?†   (source)
  • He was so obstinate.†   (source)
  • His hair had been cut when he was nine years old, after a bitter siege against Eliza's obstinacy.†   (source)
  • Bassett was obstinately silent, looking at Paul.†   (source)
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