WAYWARD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wayward mean? 

• WAYWARD (adjective)
  The adjective WAYWARD has 1 sense:

1. resistant to guidance or discipline

  Familiarity information: WAYWARD used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WAYWARD (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resistant to guidance or discipline

Synonyms:

contrary; obstinate; perverse; wayward

Context example:

wayward behavior

Similar:

disobedient (not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority)

 Context examples 

I cannot say at what stage of my grief it first became associated with the reflection, that, in my wayward boyhood, I had thrown away the treasure of her love.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was wild, wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the handling of large sums of money.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The rough-and-tumble environment near the center of the massive Coma galaxy cluster is no match for a wayward spiral galaxy.

(Hubble Sees Plunging Galaxy Losing Its Gas, NASA)

So she prattled on to her hawk, while Alleyne walked by her side, stealing a glance from time to time at this queenly and wayward woman.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He lay in dull despair, while she watched him searchingly, pondering again upon unsummoned and wayward thoughts of marriage.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He is a brilliant fellow when he chooses to work—one of the brightest intellects of the university; but he is wayward, dissipated, and unprincipled.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My pupil was a lively child, who had been spoilt and indulged, and therefore was sometimes wayward; but as she was committed entirely to my care, and no injudicious interference from any quarter ever thwarted my plans for her improvement, she soon forgot her little freaks, and became obedient and teachable.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Let that pass. I have been a grumpy, frumpy, wayward sort of a woman, a good many years.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“If you had been shut up in abbey or in cell this day you could not have taught a wayward maiden to abide by the truth. Is it not so? What avail is the shepherd if he leaves his sheep.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Moreover, she was rather what might be called wayward—I'll go so far as to say what I should call wayward myself, said Mr. Omer; —didn't know her own mind quite—a little spoiled—and couldn't, at first, exactly bind herself down.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)