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d or compIy with what is required or is reasonable; perverse; disobedient; peevish; as, a froward child. A froward man soweth strife. Prov. xvi. 28. A froward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as innovation. Bacon.

To make froward, perverse, or ungovernable. [Obs.] Sir E. Sandys.

To grumble or mutter like a froward child. [Obs.] E. Phillips.

Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [Obs.] Though his mind Be ne'er so curst, his tonque is kind. Crashaw.

Peevishness; malignity; frowardness; crabbedness; surliness. [Obs.] Shak.

Peevish; froward. [Obs.] Clarendon.

Mischievous; perverse; froward; guilty of disobedient or improper conduct; as, a naughty child.

to complain; querulous; petulant. "Her peevish babe." Wordsworth. She is peevish, sullen, froward. Shak.

on a frowning look; to look sour, sullen, severe, or angry. She scowled and frowned with froward countenance. Spenser.

having the qualities of a shrew; having a scolding disposition; froward; peevish. My wife is shrewish when I keep not hours. Shak. -- Shrew"ish*ly, adv. -- Shrew"ish*ness, n.

Readly to do or learn; compliant with duty; not froward; apt; docile; tractable; as, a toward youth.

Froward; perverse. "Save yourselves from this untoward generation." Acts ii. 40.

Perverse; froward; untoward. "Untowardly tricks and vices." Locke.

lascivious; libidinous; lecherous. Not with wanton looking of folly. Chaucer. [Thou art] froward by nature, enemy to peace, Lascivious, wanton. Shak.

Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. My wife is in a wayward mood. Shak. Wayward beauty doth not fancy move. Fairfax. Wilt thou forgive the wayward thought Keble. -- Way"ward*ly, adv. -- Way"ward*ness, n.