insubordination

See synonyms for insubordination on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. the quality or condition of being insubordinate, or of being disobedient to authority; defiance: The employee was fired for insubordination.

Origin of insubordination

1
First recorded in 1785–95; in-3 + subordinat(e) + -ion

Words Nearby insubordination

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use insubordination in a sentence

  • Now one might explain away the insubordination as standard trash talk among stressed-out warriors.

    McChrystal Must Go | James Hoge | June 22, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • From day one, the press will be searching for signs of acrimony or insubordination.

    Obama Was Right About Hillary | Peter Beinart | December 1, 2008 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Exemplary punishment is to be visited upon me for "precocious godlessness, dangerous tendencies, and insubordination."

    Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander Berkman
  • Evil and insubordination were more easily kept under than Norman had expected, when he first made up his mind to the struggle.

    The Daisy Chain | Charlotte Yonge
  • Mrs Pike cast a withering glance at Digby; such a piece of insubordination had not been met with for a long time to her authority.

    Digby Heathcote | W.H.G. Kingston
  • It is the only instance I know of where insubordination saved any army from a surprise attack, and possibly from defeat.

    A Virginia Scout | Hugh Pendexter
  • They reckoned him their ablest general, though his insubordination and self-seeking rendered the loss of him an actual gain.