''refractory'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''refractory'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904134559-00-⌔

refractory - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

refractory (comparative more refractory, superlative most refractory)

• Obstinate and unruly; strongly opposed to something.
  • ✤ Synonyms: (inanimates) contrary, fractious; see also Thesaurus: obstinate
  • ✤ […] in most instances attempts to coerce the refractory and disobedient have been the signals of bloody wars, […]¹
  • ✤ Mr. Weller knocked at the door, and after a pretty long interval—occupied by the party without, in whistling a tune, and by the party within, in persuading a refractory flat candle to allow itself to be lighted […]²
  • ✤ For five minutes Pollyanna worked swiftly, deftly, combing a refractory curl into fluffiness, perking up a drooping ruffle at the neck, or shaking a pillow into plumpness so that the head might have a better pose. Meanwhile the sick woman, frowning prodigiously, and openly scoffing at the whole procedure, was, in spite of herself, beginning to tingle with a feeling perilously near to excitement.³
  • ✤ And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
    Lying down in the melting snow.⁴
• Not affected by great heat.
  • ✤ Synonyms: heat-resistant, fireproof
  • ✤ Pure lime is extremely refractory, but readily fusible if any silex is brought in contact with it; […]⁵
  • ✤ There are also over 1,200 pallet brick wagons used for the conveyance of refractory bricks.⁶
• (medicine) Resistant to treatment; not responding adequately to therapy.
  • ✤ Many of the vague and refractory cases of neck and shoulder pain and of migraine may be due to cervical disc disease.⁷
  • ✤ In 33 adult patients with long standing refractory epilepsy on treatment with one or two standard anti-convulsant drugs,⁸
• (biology) Incapable of registering a reaction or stimulus.
  • ✤ The production of a generator potential leaves a refractory state in the receptor membrane […]⁹
  • ✤ The […] delivery of external stimuli […] delineates the pacemaker refractory period after the emission of a pacing stimulus and after the sensing of a spontaneous beat.¹⁰

Noun

refractory (plural refractories)

• A material or piece of material, such as a brick, that has a very high melting point.
• A plant or factory that produces such material.

Etymology

From Latin refractārius (“obstinate”), from refrāctus, past participle of refringere (“to break up”). Originally refractary, refractarie, but reanalysed after other adjectives in -ory.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ɹɪˈfɹæk.tə.ɹi/
• (US, Canada) IPA: /ɹɪˈfɹæk.təɹ.i/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
• (Australia) IPA: /ɹɪˈfɹæk.tə.ɹi/
  • Audio (Queensland): 🔊
• (New Zealand) IPA: /ɹəˈfɹæk.tə.ɹi/
• Rhymes: -æktəɹi

Printed 2026-09-04.

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Footnotes

1. 1787, Alexander Hamilton, “No. 16”, in The Federalist, published 1863, page 103: ↩

2. 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 26”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC: ↩

3. 1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna ‎${}^{[1]}$, L.C. Page, →OCLC: ↩

4. 1927 August, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “[Ariel Poems.] Journey of the Magi.”, in Collected Poems 1909–1935, London: Faber & Faber […], published September 1954, →OCLC, page 107: ↩

5. 1855, Frederick Overman, A Treatise on Metallurgy ‎${}^{[2]}$, page 315: ↩

6. 1959 January, “Developments in Freight Transport”, in Railway Magazine, page 50: ↩

7. 1949, Albert Fields, John Hoesley, “Neck and Shoulder Pain”, in Calif. Med., 70(6):478-482: ↩

8. 1990, H. A. Ring et al., “Vigabatrin: rational treatment for chronic epilepsy”, in J. Neurol. Neurosurg.Psychiatry, 53(12):1051-1055: ↩

9. 1959, Nobusada Ishiko, Werner R. Loewenstein, “Electrical output of a receptor membrane”, in Science, 130:1405-6: ↩

10. 1970, S.S. Barold et al., “Chest wall stimulation in evaluation of patients with implanted ventricular-inhibited demand pacemakers”, in Br. Heart J., 32(6):783-789: ↩

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