unruly

adj
/ʌnˈɹuːli/

Etymology

From Middle English unruly (“unquiet, restless”), equivalent to un- + rule + -ly (compare Middle English ruly, reuli (“subject to a religious rule, regular”)), but also representing a modified continuation of earlier Middle English unrouly, unroly (“unquiet, restless”), equivalent to un- + roolie. The latter is perhaps from or influenced by Old Norse *úróligr, related to Danish urolig (“restless”), Swedish orolig (“restless”), Icelandic órólegur (“agitated”). Compare also Middle English unroo, unro (“unrest”). More at roo.

  1. derived from *úróligr
  2. inherited from unrouly
  3. inherited from unruly

Definitions

  1. Wild

    Wild; uncontrolled.

    • The police gathered to contain the unruly mob.
    • Unruly boys who will not grow up / Must be taken in hand / Unruly girls who will not settle down / They must be taken in hand
    • Richard DeLongpre: Are you okay, my boy angel? Allen Gregory DeLongpre: I have a broken heart. And undergarments filled with my own unruly waste.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at unruly. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01unruly02uncontrolled03pavement04paving05hard06firm07hooliganism

A definitional loop anchored at unruly. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at unruly

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA