<adj.all> his flinty gaze the child's misery would move even the most obdurate heart
Obdurate \Ob"du*rate\, a. [L. obduratus, p. p. of obdurare to harden; ob (see Ob-)+ durare to harden, durus hard. See {Dure}.] 1. Hardened in feelings, esp. against moral or mollifying influences; unyielding; hard-hearted; stubbornly wicked.
The very custom of evil makes the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary. --Hooker.
Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel, Nay, more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth? --Shak.
Usage: {Obdurate}, {Callous}, {Hardened}. Callous denotes a deadening of the sensibilities; as, a callous conscience. Hardened implies a general and settled disregard for the claims of interest, duty, and sympathy; as, hardened in vice. Obdurate implies an active resistance of the heart and will aganst the pleadings of compassion and humanity. ※ -- {Ob"du*rate*ly}, adv. -- {Ob"du*rate*ness}, n.
Obdurate \Ob"du*rate\, v. t. To harden. [Obs.]
Whether that would be a sensible deployment of scarce economic resources is quite another matter. Nor is it clear that the UK government was incompetent, as opposed to obdurate, in its handling of the situation.
But with the federal budget remaining obdurate, interest rates rising, oil prices stable and the dollar falling, the era of rock-bottom inflation seems to have ended.
There are, however, some walls that loom as obdurate as Stonehenge.