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• froward
  froward

  adjective

  willfully contrary; not easily managed.
• Froward
  Froward

  noun

  Cape, a cape in S Chile, on the Strait of Magellan: southernmost point of mainland South America.

froward

¹ American  

[froh-werd, froh-erd] / ˈfroʊ wərd, ˈfroʊ ərd /

adjective

1. willfully contrary; not easily managed.

   to be worried about one's froward, intractable child.

   Synonyms:

   difficult, unmanageable, wayward, fractious, disobedient, willful, obstinate

   Antonyms:

   tractable, docile

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Froward ² American  

[froh-werd, froh-erd] / ˈfroʊ wərd, ˈfroʊ ərd /

noun

1. Cape, a cape in S Chile, on the Strait of Magellan: southernmost point of mainland South America.

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froward British  

/ ˈfrəʊəd /

adjective

1. archaic obstinate; contrary

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Other Word Forms

• frowardness
  noun
• unfroward
  adjective
• frowardly
  adverb
• unfrowardly
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of froward

First recorded in 1150–1200, froward is from the Middle English word froward, fraward. See fro, -ward

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Explanation

Froward means willful and disobedient. If your dog sits when you call her to come and runs away when you tell her to sit, you can say she's froward. The adverb froward is an old-fashioned way to describe someone who's difficult and ornery. It's a lot more fun to babysit agreeable kids than froward ones. New teachers have nightmares about classes full of froward students and are relieved to find pleasant and polite ones on the first day of school. The Old English root of froward is frāward, "turning away from," or the opposite of toward.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

froward Froward

Two of them — 6-2 froward Autumn Newby from Baylor and 5-6 guard Alexis Morris from Texas A&M — are starters.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 25, 2022

“Before we were stepping froward, now we’re stepping back,” a supporter named Katherine King told me.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 9, 2016

But the series swims also on an ocean of wondrous language, in which inept seamen, for instance, are not only "sad brutish grobians," but "froward dirty disreputable rough good-for-nothing disorderly ragabashes and raparees."

From Time Magazine Archive

The biography of Moreton Frewen, Winston Churchill's froward uncle and a born loser who went from one financial debacle to another with style, imagination and diligence.

From Time Magazine Archive

Confidence restored, he became keenly alert for a chance to humble this froward Yankee.

From The Argus Pheasant by John Charles Beecham

It is at Cape Froward that the American continent actually terminates, for Cape Horn is nothing but a rock sunk in the sea in latitude 52 degrees.

From In Search of the Castaways; or the Children of Captain Grant by Jules Verne

Often forgetful, Love may forget; Froward and fretful, Dear, he will fret; Ever regretful, He will regret.

From One Day & Another A Lyrical Eclogue by Julius Madison Cawein

I had often told my father that I could never marry Lady Clara Froward, for that I was attached to another lady, and only wished for his consent to marry her.

From Forgotten Tales of Long Ago by F. D. Bedford

On rounding Cape Froward, we beat up in-shore against a N.N.E. breeze, and in the evening were three or four miles to the northward of Point St. Isidro.

From Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836 Volume I. - Proceedings of the First Expedition, 1826-1830 by Robert Fitzroy

It is also common in the Strait of Magalhaens, in all those parts west of Cape Froward; but there, from the poverty of the soil, it is of very stunted growth.

From Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836 Volume I. - Proceedings of the First Expedition, 1826-1830 by Robert Fitzroy

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