recalcitrant

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Discover the hidden meanings you've been missing! Check
out Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions.
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The Word of the Day for March 2 is:

recalcitrant   \rih-KAL-suh-trunt\   adjective
   *1 : obstinately defiant of authority or restraint
     2 a : difficult to manage or operate  b : not responsive to 
treatment  c : resistant

Example sentence:
     Anna's doctor ordered a week of complete bed rest, but, 
ever recalcitrant when it comes to doctors' orders, she was up 
and baking a cake after two days.

Did you know?
     Long before any human was dubbed "recalcitrant" in English 
(that first occurred, as best we know, in one of William 
Thackeray's works in 1843), there were stubborn mules (and 
horses) kicking back their heels. The ancient Romans noted as 
much (Pliny the Elder among them), and they had a word for it --
"recalcitrare," which literally means "to kick back." (Its 
root "calc-," meaning "heel," is also the root of "calcaneus," 
the large bone of the heel in humans.) Certainly Roman citizens 
in Pliny's time were sometimes willful and hardheaded -- as 
attested by various Latin words meaning "stubborn" -- but it 
wasn't until later that writers of Late Latin 
applied "recalcitrare" and its derivative adjective to humans 
who were stubborn as mules. 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.