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View synonyms for wayward

wayward

[ wey-werd ]

adjective

  1. turned or turning away from what is right or proper; willful; disobedient:

    a wayward son; wayward behavior.

    Synonyms: intractable, refractory, unruly, obstinate, stubborn, headstrong, contrary

  2. swayed or prompted by caprice; capricious:

    a wayward impulse; to be wayward in one's affections.

  3. turning or changing irregularly; irregular:

    a wayward breeze.

    Synonyms: changeable, inconstant, unsteady



wayward

/ ˈweɪwəd /

adjective

  1. wanting to have one's own way regardless of the wishes or good of others
  2. capricious, erratic, or unpredictable
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • ˈwaywardness, noun
  • ˈwaywardly, adverb
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Other Words From

  • wayward·ly adverb
  • wayward·ness noun
  • un·wayward adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of wayward1

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; aphetic variant of awayward. See away, -ward
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Word History and Origins

Origin of wayward1

C14: changed from awayward turned or turning away
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Synonym Study

See willful.
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Example Sentences

Finau won that event Monday on the first playoff hole when Cameron Smith was undone by a wayward drive.

For a start, they only detected errors and didn’t actually test out the process for correcting wayward qubits.

In the future, the astronomers hope to understand how these wayward worlds acquired their odd orbits.

I do not wish to be put through any wayward maneuvering, and I am certainly not interested in a romantic relationship with you.

Still, Suggs would be a dream addition for a wayward franchise that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2004 and has struggled to develop a young core in recent years.

It was an intimate and somber plea, like a parent opening an intervention with a wayward child.

How about the man who created her—a lover of women who lived with a wife, his lover, their children, and a wayward librarian?

The story of a wayward anesthesia trainee who took a near fatal dose of fentanyl hit the news this week.

Not to worry, Bob, those wayward thoughts are portals of discovery for an interviewer.

A regal few were spiritual counselors, like Weberman, bringing wayward kids and teens back from the brink of ruined lives.

But agitation unlocks wayward fancies and sends them scurrying inopportunely across the very foreground of the mind.

Mariamne had grown more fantastic, and capricious, and wayward than ever.

A large stone set in a secure place surely is a better boundary than a wayward stream whose course is changed by every freshet.

Observe the wayward boy whose chief inheritance is a wild, wilful nature.

From this companionship a group of wayward children may be formed.

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