noun a refractory person.
2. refractory ·noun refractoriness.
3. refractory ·adj obstinate in disobedience; contumacious; stubborn; unmanageable; as, a refractory child; a refractory beast.
4. refractory ·noun opottery) a piece of ware covered with a vaporable flux and placed in a kiln, to communicate a glaze to the other articles.
5. refractory ·adj resisting ordinary treatment; difficult of fusion, reduction, or the like;
said especially of metals and the like, which do not readily yield to heat, or to the hammer; as, a refractory ore.