lexicow

unruly

/ʌnˈruːli//ʌnˈruːli/·adjective
I watch a marshal point five little figures into a tidy line, and for one proud second they hold it. Then they're off — one bouncing, one swinging out, one bolting down the row, one spun round backwards, one launched clean into the air — while the marshal's arm just sags. I almost cheer them. You can call the line; you cannot make them keep it.
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Definition

Unruly means resistant to rule — literally so, since it is built straight from 'rule' itself. An unruly thing will not be governed, ordered or held in line: a crowd, a class of children, a head of hair, a debate that keeps boiling over. The word carries a hint of energy rather than malice — unruly things are lively and self-willed, not evil — but they exhaust whoever is trying to keep order. Whatever structure you impose, an unruly subject keeps bulging back out of it.

Examples

  • The substitute teacher struggled all afternoon to calm an unruly classroom.
  • Without a firm chair, the meeting grew unruly and tipped over into a frenzy of interruptions.
  • Police were eventually called in to suppress the increasingly unruly crowd.

Collocations

an unruly crowd·unruly behaviour·unruly hair·an unruly mob·an unruly class

Synonyms

disorderly·unmanageable·rowdy·undisciplined·wayward

Antonyms

orderly·docile·compliant·disciplined

Word family

unruliness (noun)

In TOEFL & IELTS

A vivid descriptive adjective for Speaking and Writing about crowds, behaviour and even hair. Strong collocations: an unruly crowd / mob / class / child, and the fixed 'unruly hair'. Note the spelling — no 'e' before the -ly (unruly, not unrulely) — and the stress on the long middle syllable: un-ROO-lee.