insubordination

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The quality or state of being insubordinate; disobedience to lawful authority; specifically, an employee's failure or refusal to comply with a request or an assignment given by his/her supervisor.

   Green, who served as a technical manager in the network's Washington bureau, charged in her suit that she was subject to "repeated acts of insubordination by white male engineers and technicians, with the effect of the erosion and undermining of [her] ability to carry out her duties as supervisor."

2. 2
   noun

   an insubordinate act

3. 3
   noun

   defiance of authority

Etymology

From in- + subordination, on the model of French insubordination.