Synonyms for unruly
ʌnˈru liun·ru·ly

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:4.0 / 1 vote

1. unruly

   Balky, mulish, obstinate, and stubborn are synonyms of restive only in an infrequent if not obsolete use; the supposed sense of "tending to rest," "standing stubbornly still," is scarcely supported by any examples, and those cited to support that meaning often fail to do so. The disposition to offer active resistance to control by any means whatever is what is commonly indicated by restive in the best English speech and literature. Dryden speaks of "the pampered colt" as "restiff to the rein;" but the rein is not used to propel a horse forward, but to hold him in, and it is against this that he is "restiff." A horse may be made restless by flies or by martial music, but with no refractoriness; the restive animal impatiently resists or struggles to break from control, as by bolting, flinging his rider, or otherwise. With this the metaphorical use of the word agrees, which is always in the sense of such terms as impatient, intractable, rebellious, and the like; a people restive under despotism are not disposed to "rest" under it, but to resist it and fling it off.

   Synonyms:
   balky, fidgety, fractious, fretful, frisky, impatient, intractable, mulish, mutinous, obstinate, rebellious, recalcitrant, refractory, resentful, restiff, restive, restless, skittish, stubborn, vicious

   Antonyms:
   docile, gentle, manageable, obedient, passive, peaceable, quiet, submissive, tractable, yielding

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. unruly

   Synonyms:
   ungovernable, unmanageable, refractory

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:2.5 / 2 votes

1. boisterous, rambunctious, robustious, rumbustious, unrulyadjective

   noisy and lacking in restraint or discipline

   "a boisterous crowd"; "a social gathering that became rambunctious and out of hand"; "a robustious group of teenagers"; "beneath the rumbustious surface of his paintings is sympathy for the vulnerability of ordinary human beings"; "an unruly class"

   Synonyms:
   rambunctious, rumbustious, indocile, robustious, disobedient, rough, uncontrollable, boisterous, ungovernable, knockabout, fierce

   Antonyms:
   manageable, orderly, subordinate

2. disobedient, unrulyadjective

   unwilling to submit to authority

   "unruly teenagers"

   Synonyms:
   rambunctious, rumbustious, indocile, robustious, disobedient, uncontrollable, boisterous, ungovernable

   Antonyms:
   manageable, subordinate, orderly

3. indocile, uncontrollable, ungovernable, unrulyadjective

   of persons

   "the little boy's parents think he is spirited, but his teacher finds him unruly"

   Synonyms:
   rambunctious, rumbustious, irrepressible, indocile, robustious, disobedient, uncorrectable, uncontrollable, boisterous, ungovernable, unmanageable

   Antonyms:
   subordinate, manageable, orderly

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. unrulyadjective

   Synonyms:
   turbulent, ungovernable, refractory, disobedient, insubordinate, mutinous, riotous, seditious, rebellious

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated WordsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. unrulyadjective

   Synonyms:
   turbulent, ungovernable, refractory, insubordinate, fractious, insurgent, indocile, disobedient, froward, vicious, intractable, rebellious

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "unruly":

   undisciplined, turbulent, wrongful, disorderly

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Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use unruly in a sentence?

1. Heather MacDonald:

   The protesters surrounded all the doors to the Atheneum where I was supposed to speak, so none of the students who had signed up to attend my lecture could get in, i was hustled from my guest suite by several police officers from Claremont PD into the lecture hall. It was decided that I would give the speech for live streaming to a largely empty hall. The organizers moved the podium so that it would not be visible through the windows to the students surrounding the building once night fell. We jumpstarted the timing of my talk as the crowd seemed to be getting more unruly.

2. Yaron Brook:

   But while capitalism may be a convenient scapegoat, it did not cause any of these problems. Indeed, whatever one wishes to call the unruly mixture of freedom and government controls that made up our economic and political system during the last three decades, one cannot call it capitalism.

3. Charles Grant.Richard Curtis:

   When I started it, I thought it would last for one year, so, it's turned out to be a very unruly but long-lasting child.

4. Nicole Perna:

   Chris is currently in Las Vegas as he is performing at Drai's on May 5th and receiving a Key to the Strip that day as well, he has a suite at the hotel that has a basketball court and invited friends to come play. An unruly individual showed up uninvited and was removed from the premises. Chris was not in an altercation with this person.

5. Emma Briant:

   The current regime of unregulated, unruly, unethical influence companies both makes us unsafe and undermines democratic debate.