Word Study
wayward
CIDE DICTIONARY
Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. [1913 Webster]
"My wife is in a wayward mood." [1913 Webster]
"Wayward beauty doth not fancy move." [1913 Webster]
"Wilt thou forgive the wayward thought?" [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
wayward, adj.
1 childishly self-willed or perverse; capricious.
2 unaccountable or freakish.
1 childishly self-willed or perverse; capricious.
2 unaccountable or freakish.
Derivative
waywardly adv. waywardness n.
Etymology
ME f. obs. awayward turned away f. AWAY + -WARD: cf. FROWARD
THESAURUS
wayward
Adamic, Paphian, adrift, afloat, alternating, amorphous, arbitrary, backsliding, balky, cantankerous, capricious, carnal, chambering, changeable, changeful, contrary, cranky, cross-grained, crotchety, desultory, deviable, difficult, disobedient, dizzy, easy, eccentric, erratic, erring, fallen, fanciful, fantasied, fantastic, fast and loose, fickle, fitful, flaky, fleshly, flickering, flighty, flitting, fluctuating, frail, freakish, froward, giddy, harebrained, humorsome, impetuous, impulsive, impure, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, indisciplined, infirm, irascible, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, kinky, lapsed, lawless, lax, light, loose, loose-moraled, maggoty, mazy, mercurial, moody, motiveless, naughty, nonconforming, notional, obstinate, of easy virtue, of loose morals, ornery, peccable, perverse, petulant, postlapsarian, prodigal, promiscuous, quirky, rambling, recidivist, recidivistic, recusant, restive, restless, roving, scatterbrained, self-willed, shapeless, shifting, shifty, shuffling, slack, spasmodic, spineless, stuffy, sulky, sullen, temperamental, transgressive, unaccountable, unangelic, uncertain, unchaste, unclean, uncomplying, uncontrolled, undependable, undisciplined, unduteous, undutiful, unfixed, ungodly, ungood, unpredictable, unreasonable, unreliable, unrestrained, unrighteous, unsaintly, unsettled, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unvirtuous, vacillating, vagarious, vagrant, variable, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, violative, virtueless, volatile, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, weak, whimsical, whorish, willful, wishy-washy, wrongheadedROGET THESAURUS
wayward
Obstinacy
N obstinacy, obstinateness, obstinacy, tenacity, cussedness, perseverance, immovability, old school, inflexibility, obduracy, obduration, dogged resolution, resolution, ruling passion, blind side, self-will, contumacy, perversity, pervicacy, pervicacity, indocility, bigotry, intolerance, dogmatism, opiniatry, opiniativeness, fixed idea, fanaticism, zealotry, infatuation, monomania, opinionatedness opinionativeness, mule, opinionist, opinionatist, opiniator, opinator, stickler, dogmatist, bigot, zealot, enthusiast, fanatic, obstinate, tenacious, stubborn, obdurate, casehardened, inflexible, balky, immovable, unshakable, not to be moved, inert, unchangeable, inexorable, mulish, obstinate as a mule, pig-headed, dogged, sullen, sulky, unmoved, uninfluenced unaffected, willful, self-willed, perverse, resty, restive, restiff, pervicacious, wayward, refractory, unruly, heady, headstrong, entete, contumacious, crossgrained, arbitrary, dogmatic, positive, bigoted, prejudiced, creed- bound, prepossessed, infatuated, stiff-backed, stiff necked, stiff hearted, hard-mouthed, hidebound, unyielding, impervious, impracticable, inpersuasible, unpersuadable, intractable, untractable, incorrigible, deaf to advice, impervious to reason, crotchety, obstinately, non possumus, no surrender, ils n'ont rien appris ne rien oublie.Caprice
N caprice, fancy, humor, whim, whimsy, whimsey, whimwham, crotchet, capriccio, quirk, freak, maggot, fad, vagary, prank, fit, flimflam, escapade, boutade, wild-goose chase, capriciousness, kink, capricious, erratic, eccentric, fitful, hysterical, full of whims, maggoty, inconsistent, fanciful, fantastic, whimsical, crotchety, kinky, particular, humorsome, freakish, skittish, wanton, wayward, contrary, captious, arbitrary, unconformable, penny wise and pound foolish, fickle, frivolous, sleeveless, giddy, volatile, by fits and starts, without rhyme or reason, nil fuit unquain sic inipar sibi, the deuce is in him.Changeableness
N changeableness, mutability, inconstancy, versatility, mobility, instability, unstable equilibrium, vacillation, fluctuation, vicissitude, alternation, restlessness, fidgets, disquiet, disquietude, inquietude, unrest, agitation, moon, Proteus, chameleon, quicksilver, shifting sands, weathercock, harlequin, Cynthia of the minute, April showers, wheel of Fortune, transientness, changeable, changeful, changing, mutable, variable, checkered, ever changing, protean, proteiform, versatile, unstaid, inconstant, unsteady, unstable, unfixed, unsettled, fluctuating, restless, agitated, erratic, fickle, irresolute, capricious, touch and go, inconsonant, fitful, spasmodic, vibratory, vagrant, wayward, desultory, afloat, alternating, alterable, plastic, mobile, transient, wavering, seesaw, off and on, a rolling stone gathers no moss, pictra mossa non fa muschis, honores mutant mores, varium et mutabile semper femina.Sullenness
N sullenness, morosity, spleen, churlishness, irascibility, moodiness, perversity, obstinacy, torvity, spinosity, crabbedness, ill temper, bad temper, ill humor, bad humor, sulks, dudgeon, mumps, dumps, doldrums, fit of the sulks, bouderie, black looks, scowl, grouch, huff, sullen, sulky, ill-tempered, ill-humored, ill-affected, ill- disposed, grouty, in an ill temper, in a bad temper, in a shocking temper, in an ill humor, in a bad humor, in a shocking humor, out of temper, out of humor, knaggy, torvous, crusty, crabbed, sour, sour as a crab, surly, moody, spleenish, spleenly, splenetic, cankered, cross, crossgrained, perverse, wayward, humorsome, restiff, restive, cantankerous, intractable, exceptious, sinistrous, deaf to reason, unaccommodating, rusty, froward, cussed, dogged, grumpy, glum, grim, grum, morose, frumpish, in the sulks, out of sorts, scowling, glowering, growling, grouchy, peevish.For further exploring for "wayward" in Webster Dictionary Online