Obstinate in disobedience; contumacious; stubborn; unmanageable; as, a refractory child; a refractory beast. Raging appetites that are Most disobedient and refractory. Shak.
Resisting ordinary treatment; difficult of fusion, reduction, or the like; -- said especially of metals and the like, which do not readily yield to heat, or to the hammer; as, a refractory ore.
A refractory person. Bp. Hall.
Refractoriness. [Obs.] Jer. TAylor.
OPottery) A piece of ware covered with a vaporable flux and placed in a kiln, to communicate a glaze to the other articles. Knight.
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