Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Difficult to manage, deal with, or change to an acceptable condition.
  • adjective Difficult to alleviate, remedy, or cure.
  • adjective Difficult to persuade or keep under control, as in behavior: synonym: obstinate.
  • adjective Difficult to mold or manipulate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not tractable or to be drawn or guided by persuasion; uncontrollable.
  • Not to be brought into the desired order or condition; unmanageable; resisting effort: as, an intractable disposition; an intractable subject for literary treatment.
  • Synonyms Stubborn, Refractory, etc. (see obstinate); unruly, unmanageable, ungovernable, wilful.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not tractable; not easily governed, managed, or directed; indisposed to be taught, disciplined, or tamed; violent; stubborn; obstinate; refractory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not tractable or to be drawn or guided by persuasion; not easily governed, managed, or directed; uncontrollable; incurable; violent; stubborn; obstinate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not tractable; difficult to manage or mold

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From in- +‎ tractable

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