unruly
Americanadjective
adjective
Related Words
Unruly, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory describe persons or things that resist management or control. Unruly suggests persistently disorderly behavior or character in persons or things: an unruly child, peevish and willful; wild, unruly hair. Intractable suggests in persons a determined resistance to all attempts to guide or direct them, in things a refusal to respond to attempts to shape, improve, or modify them: an intractable social rebel; a seemingly intractable problem in logistics. recalcitrant and refractory imply not only a lack of submissiveness but also an open, often violent, rebellion against authority or direction. Recalcitrant, the stronger of the two terms, suggests a stubborn and absolute noncompliance: a recalcitrant person, openly contemptuous of all authority. Refractory implies active, mulish disobedience, but leaves open the possibility of eventual compliance: refractory students, resisting efforts to interest them in their studies.
Other Word Forms
- unruliness noun
Etymology
Origin of unruly
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English unruely, equivalent to un- un- 1 + ruly, ruely “governable, controllable”; rule, -y 1
Explanation
Unruly means lacking in restraint or not submitting to authority. Spitballs, shouting kids, a shouting teacher — these are all signs of an unruly classroom. Often, one unruly student is all it takes. It's easy to see how un- ("not") and ruly ("rule") create a word that is all about not following rules. When someone is unruly, they've thrown the rules out of the window. An unruly person refuses to obey authority, while an unruly piece of hair might refuse to stay inside a clip. And if a cat herder had trouble corralling kittens for a parade, there would be unruly kittens everywhere!
Vocabulary lists containing unruly
List 6
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act II
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Tears of a Tiger
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Last month, another American Airlines flight, from New York to Chicago, made an emergency landing in Detroit because an unruly passenger was demanding that the plane land.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 10, 2026
The other stays raw — bright, fresh, slightly unruly.
From Salon • Mar. 17, 2026
A supreme court ruling reportedly issued Tuesday afternoon appears to have blocked the post-mortems, but not before unruly protest scenes broke out on Tuesday in Jerusalem and other Israeli cities, according to police.
From Barron's • Jan. 20, 2026
The pandemic amplified the behavior, with reports of unruly passengers rising sixfold between 2020 and 2021, according to the FAA.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 14, 2026
Horatio seized his head in his hands, making his red curls wild and unruly.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
