obstinacy

plural obstinacies · alternative proscribed obstinance · alternative proscribed obstinancy

1. countableuncountableThe state, or an act, of stubbornness or doggedness.

   He finished only through a mixture of determined obstinacy and ingenuity.

   3 more examples

   "I don't know where," replied the girl. "Then I do," said Sikes, more in the spirit of obstinacy than because he had any real objection.

   1839, Charles Dickens, chapter 44, in Oliver Twist

   1877, Leo Tolstoy (author), David Magarshack (translator), Anna Karenina, part 6, ch 12, His hand closed, he drew back, and his face assumed a still more stubborn expression. "For you it's a matter of obstinacy," she said, looking intently at him and suddenly finding the right word for the expression of his face which exasperated her so much.

   As Valentinov and others pointed out, the extreme obstinacy with which Lenin defended materialism was rooted not only in Marxism but in the tradition of the Russian materialists, especially Chernyshevsky, whose philosophy was a popularization of Feuerbach.

   1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in Polish), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 464

2. collectivecountableA group or herd of bison or buffalo.

   🔥 An obstinacy of Bison stampeding down a road

   2024 November 12, therra123, “🔥 An obstinacy of Bison stampeding down a road”, in reddit.com

   3 more examples

   When the obstinacy of buffalo, which usually numbers between fifty and five hundred, is searching for food and water, the pathfinders, as the experienced cows are called, lead them to their destinations.

   2022, Barbara Stotts Cochran, Our Educational System Flipped Upside Down: Teaching Reading to Reduce the Negative Effects of School Closures During the Pandemic, and Beyond, Christian Faith Publishing

   Ahead, in the Little Missouri River bottom, Jakub spotted an obstinacy of bison ambling down the riverbank.

   2022, Taylor Brorby, Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land, Liveright

   Believe it or not, hairstyles are also a popular feature for second mentions. An alpaca can be 'the mop-haired camelid', and an obstinacy of bison, 'the humpbacked, shaggy-haired animals'.

   2025, Juliet Maguire and Matthew Maguire, The Little Book of Second Mentions: The Art of Avoiding Repetition, Biteback Publishing