- 1桀驁不馴的、不聽話的、屢教不改的；（物）不聽使喚的
Someone recalcitrant refuses to do what they are told, and keeps refusing. The word is stronger than 'stubborn' in one particular way: it implies authority is involved. There is someone giving orders, and this person is not obeying — and pressure, warnings, even punishment have not worked. A recalcitrant student has been spoken to already. A recalcitrant government has been asked several times.
It is a formal word, mainly written. Reports, news, history, official language. In speech people say 'he won't do what he's told', 'she's difficult', 'they refuse to cooperate'.
Two extras. It stretches nicely to things that will not work: 'a recalcitrant lock', 'the recalcitrant printer' — a small joke, treating the object as if it were being difficult on purpose, and quite a common one in English. And it can be a noun for the person: 'the recalcitrants at the back of the class'. That noun use is rarer and sounds rather official.
One more thing worth keeping straight: the word describes the refusing, not what is refused. A recalcitrant person may be right — a writer using the word usually thinks otherwise, but the word itself is about the digging-in.
組成From Latin recalcitrare, 'to kick back'. The middle piece is calx, 'heel'. It was first said of horses and mules that kicked out instead of moving forward — and the word kept that shape when it moved to people. Someone recalcitrant is, in the picture the Romans had, an animal kicking backwards at its rider.
同家族的字
- recalcitrancethe noun — the quality of being recalcitrant
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
recalcitrantadj/ɹɪˈkæl.sɪ.tɹənt/
- 1
Marked by a stubborn unwillingness to obey authority.
- His nimble fancy was recalcitrant to mental discipline.
- There was something in her manner so reminiscent of the school teacher reprimanding a recalcitrant pupil that Mr. Snyder's sense of humor came to his rescue.
- 2
Unwilling to cooperate socially.
- 3
Difficult to deal with or to operate.
- The more labile organic constituents of complex dissolved and particulate organic matter are commonly hydrolyzed and metabolized more rapidly than more recalcitrant organic compounds that are less accessible enzymatically.
- The Hansa had no legal status, independent finances or a common institutional framework, while the major weapon against recalcitrant members (or opponents) was the threat of embargo.
- 4
biologybotanynatural-sciencesNot viable for an extended period; damaged by drying or freezing.
recalcitrantnoun/ɹɪˈkæl.sɪ.tɹənt/
- 1
A person who is recalcitrant.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。