From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrefractoryre‧frac‧to‧ry /rɪˈfræktəri/ adjective 1 formalDISOBEY deliberately not obeying someone in authority and being difficult to deal with or control SYN unruly2 medical a refractory disease or illness is hard to treat or cure
Examples from the Corpus
refractory• The tale of Gormenghast requires a large number of refractory animals, few of them capable of taking direction.• Initial therapy of patients with large tumor masses has been complicated by large releases of intracellular potassium with resultant refractory hyperkalemia.• Monamine oxidase inhibitors are used occasionally in migraine patients who are refractory to other prophylactic drugs.Origin refractory (1600-1700) Latin refractarius, from refragari “to oppose” 