Definition of "contumacious"

[…] and, on his conſtancie, ſounds an accuſation to Herod of a contumacious affront, on ſuch a day, before many peers; præpares the king to ſome paſſion, and at laſt, by her daughter’s dancing, effects it.

1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes”, in Henry John Todd, editor, The Poetical Works of John Milton, volume 4, published 1801, page 505

In all places too are Dissident Priests; whom the Legislative will have to deal with: contumacious individuals, working on that angriest of passions; plotting, enlisting.

1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter IV, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume II (The Constitution), London: Chapman and Hall, book V (Parliament First)

Its verbs are conjugated in a way that defies all the injunctions of the grammar books; it has its contumacious rules of tense, number and case; […]]

, H. L. Mencken, chapter 39, in The American Language, 2nd edition, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 262