These adjectives apply to persons or things that rebel against restraint or defy control. Unruly stresses a boisterous quality ?the tendency to burst free from restrictions or to get out of line. An unruly person or thing is disposed to resist discipline but can be brought under control: unruly boys creating a disturbance at a party; to plaster down unruly hair. Wayward goes beyond unruly in indicating wilfulness and immorality. It suggests a straying from the straight and narrow, and sometimes connotes potential delinquency or sexual promiscuity: a home for wayward girls. Like unruly, wayward may be applied to a piece of hair that will not stay in place: a wayward curl.

Restive emphasizes impatience and irritation ?a chafing under restraint and a struggle against coercion. A restive horse impatiently resists control or struggles to break free. A restive area is not disposed to "rest" but is ready to rebel: a restive campus, ripe for a student riot. By extension, restive has come to mean restless or fidgety, discontented with the status quo: an inattentive, restive audience, impatiently waiting for the interval.

Intractable , refractory and recalcitrant are more formal words that indicate an obstinate refusal to yield. An intractable person or animal stubbornly resists all efforts to lead, guide, restrain or influence him: The boy was shy and quiet, yet strong-willed, independent and intractable ?as stubborn as a mule. Applied to things, intractable means difficult to manipulate, treat or word: The source material was intractable and there was little the librettist could do with it. Refractory implies more active resistance, suggesting a positive rather than a passive disobedience. Refractory persons are both obstinate and rebellious, determined to protest against the dictates of authority: a refractory child, doing just the opposite of what he is told. A refractory metal or ore is one that resists heat or ordinary methods of reduction.

• Fire clay is a refractory material used to make crucibles and furnace linings; it resists the highest temperatures of the blast furnace without melting.

Recalcitrant comes from Latin roots meaning to kick back. It is close in meaning to refractory but more extreme, implying uncompromising resistance or a disposition to be defiant: A recalcitrant student who not only refused to obey the rules but threatened a teacher with violence.

Unmanageable , ungovernable and uncontrollable apply to things that are hard to handle or impossible to control. An unmanageable person or animal will not submit to guidance or direction. An unmanageable thing is incapable of being handled or dealt with successfully: a large but not unmanageable amount of work. That which is ungovernable cannot be regulated by rules or agreed-upon restraints; it defies any attempt to tame it or to bring it under orderly, rational control: an ungovernable land, beset with warring factions and internal strife. Ungovernable often suggests a loss or lack of self-control: an ungovernable temper. Uncontrollable is the most extreme of these words. It applies to that which goes beyond the bounds of control, as by being involuntary, instinctive, irrepressible or wild: uncontrollable muscular spasms; uncontrollable anger. In a special reference to children, uncontrollable means that the parents are unable to control or be socially responsible for them.