Noun: contrariness kun'treh-ree-nus
- Deliberate and stubborn unruliness and resistance to guidance or discipline
"The child's contrariness made bedtime a nightly battle";
- perversity, perverseness
- A fussy and eccentric disposition
"The old man's contrariness was legendary in the neighbourhood";
- crankiness, crotchetiness, grumpiness
Type of: fractiousness, ill nature, unruliness, wilfulness [Brit, Cdn], willfulness [N. Amer]