perverse

From Old French pervers, from Latin perversum, past participle of pervertere > per- 'thoroughly' + vertere 'to turn'. So, "thoroughly turned".

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɚˈvɝs/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈvɜːs/
• Hyphenation: per‧verse
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)s

perverse (comparative perverser, superlative perversest)

1. Turned aside; hence, specifically, turned away from the (morally) right; willfully erring; wicked; perverted.
   • 1967, Alexander Lowen, The Betrayal of the Body, U.S.A.: Macmillan Publishing Company, published 1969, page 13:

         Looking at Barbara one would have considerable difficulty detecting a perverse side to her nature. Her expression was demure, shy, and apprehensive. But she recognized the demonic aspect of her personality and admitted it.

         I felt most alive when I felt most perverse. At college, sleeping with boys had a perverse quality. I slept with a boy friend of one of my girl friends, and I was proud of it. I bragged about it because I had done something perverse. Another time, I slept with a man, fat and ugly, who paid me for it. I was very proud. I felt I had the ability to do something different.

2. Obstinately in the wrong; stubborn; intractable; hence, wayward; vexing; contrary.
   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. […] Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.

3. (law, of a verdict) Ignoring the evidence or the judge's opinions.

• docile
• innocent

• perversely
• perverseness
• perversity

• persever, preserve

• Audio

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perverse

1. Inflected form of pervers

perverse

1. feminine singular of pervers

• préserve, préservé

perverse

1. inflected form of pervers

perverse

1. feminine plural of perverso

perverse

1. vocative masculine singular of perversus

• perverse in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• perverse in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• perverse in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette