If you describe a person or their behavior as wayward, you mean that they behave in a selfish, bad, or unpredictable way, and are difficult to control.

What does it mean when a person is wayward?

1 : following one's own capricious, wanton, or depraved inclinations : ungovernable a wayward child. 2 : following no clear principle or law : unpredictable. 3 : opposite to what is desired or expected : untoward wayward fate.

Is Wayward a bad thing?

When would it be used in a negative context? Because wayward is a negative sort of word, I can't think of a context in which it would be used positively. Modern speakers use wayward as an adjective, but it began as a directional adverb. To go “(a)wayward” was to go in a direction away from something.