English Dictionary |
INSUBORDINATE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does insubordinate mean?
• INSUBORDINATE (adjective)
The adjective INSUBORDINATE has 2 senses:
1. not submissive to authority
2. disposed to or engaged in defiance of established authority
Familiarity information: INSUBORDINATE used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not submissive to authority
Context example:
insubordinate boys
Similar:
contumacious (wilfully obstinate; stubbornly disobedient)
disobedient; unruly (unwilling to submit to authority)
mutinous (disposed to or in a state of mutiny)
rebellious (resisting control or authority)
Also:
defiant; noncompliant (boldly resisting authority or an opposing force)
Antonym:
subordinate (subject or submissive to authority or the control of another)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Disposed to or engaged in defiance of established authority
Synonyms:
insubordinate; resistant; resistive
Similar:
defiant; noncompliant (boldly resisting authority or an opposing force)
Context examples
How the Revolution had swept them out of their ships, and the force been left with insubordinate seamen and no competent leaders.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I remembered with confusion my insubordinate and stealthy conduct, and when I saw where it had brought me—among what companions and surrounded by what dangers—I felt ashamed to look him in the face.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Have not want not." (Lee Field Walstad)
"Haste makes waste." (American proverb)
"Trust yourself and your horse." (Croatian proverb)