contumacious, a.
(kɒntjuːˈmeɪʃəs)
Also 7 -atious.
[f. L. contumāci- (contumāx); see contumax and -acious.]
1. Contemning and obstinately resisting authority; stubbornly perverse, insubordinate, rebellious. (Of persons and their actions.)
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 997 Their Turcoman nation..were grown verie contumatious. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. ii. §81 His contumacious Company-keeping (contrary to his Confessours command) with an Excommunicated Count. 1772 Hist. Rochester 127 To reduce the contumacious monks to obedience. 1829 I. Taylor Enthus. x. 291 That spirit of contumacious scrupulosity which is the parent of schism. |
† b. Of diseases: Not readily yielding to treatment, stubborn. Obs.
| 1605 Timme Quersit. iii. 152 Contumacious sicknesses. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. viii. 263 In contumacious Diseases. |
2. Law. Wilfully disobedient to the summons or order of a court.
| a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. vi. iv. §1 Contumacious persons which refuse to obey their sentence. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 190 He is in Law said to be a contumacious Person, who, on his Appearance afterwards, departs the Court without leave. 1823 Lingard Hist. Eng. VI. 202 On her refusal to appear in person or by her attorney, she was pronounced contumacious. 1859 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 282 Contumacious prisoners were put to a dreadful torture. |
Hence contuˈmaciously adv., contuˈmaciousness.
| 1626 J. Pory in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 333 III. 243 They contumaciously refused to go. 1654 Codrington tr. Hist. Ivstine 219 Having their contumaciousness punish'd with a Pestilence. 1675 tr. Machiavelli's Prince (Rtldg. 1883) 286 The clients are contumaciously litigious. 1676 Wiseman Surgery i. xxv. (R.), The difficulty and contumaciousness of cure [of elephantiasis]. 1841 Macaulay W. Hastings Ess. (1854) II. 645 Imposing a fine when that assistance was contumaciously withheld. 1887 Spectator 28 May 723 Various delays in deciding upon his contumaciousness. |