— unruliness , n.
/un rooh"lee/ , adj., unrulier, unruliest .
not submissive or conforming to rule; ungovernable; turbulent; intractable; refractory; lawless: an unruly class; an unruly wilderness.
[ 1350-1400; ME unruely, equiv. to un- UN- 1 + ruly, ruely governable, controllable; see RULE, -Y 1 ]
Syn . disobedient, unmanageable, uncontrollable, stubborn, disorderly, riotous. UNRULY, INTRACTABLE, RECALCITRANT, REFRACTORY describe persons or things that resist management or control. UNRULY suggests persistently disorderly behavior or character in persons or things: an unruly child, peevish and willful; wild, unruly hair. INTRACTABLE suggests in persons a determined resistance to all attempts to guide or direct them, in things a refusal to respond to attempts to shape, improve, or modify them: an intractable social rebel; a seemingly intractable problem in logistics.
RECALCITRANT and REFRACTORY imply not only a lack of submissiveness but also an open, often violent, rebellion against authority or direction. RECALCITRANT, the stronger of the two terms, suggests a stubborn and absolute noncompliance: a recalcitrant person, openly contemptuous of all authority. REFRACTORY implies active, mulish disobedience, but leaves open the possibility of eventual compliance: refractory students, resisting efforts to interest them in their studies.