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

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perverse (comparative more perverse or perverser, superlative most perverse or perversest)

1. Turned aside while against something, splitting off from a thing.
   • 1872, The Gentleman's Magazine - Volume 232, page 367:

     Any man who succeeds in diverting the public taste, or in turning back a perverse stream which will flow in the direction of the ditch, leaves a mark, as it were, and cannot be overlooked by posterity.

   • 2008, Harrison Mujica-Jenkins, The Ninth Hour, page 221221:

     But in the same sense are modern Nietzsche's screams against the perverse (diverted) diffusion of these elemental pleas to reason for “reasons,” for the reasons—and place—of our fall in nonsense.

   • 2013, Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Transformation:

     The diverted or perverse way is also not an easy path to walk. It is rightly called “crooked” and “twisting.”

2. Morally wrong or evil; 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.

3. Obstinately in the wrong; stubborn; intractable.
4. 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.

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

• perverse incentive
• perversely
• perverseness
• perversity

perverse (third-person singular simple present perverses, present participle perversing, simple past and past participle perversed)

1. (nonstandard) To pervert.

• persever, preserve

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perverse

1. Inflected form of pervers

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perverse

1. feminine singular of pervers

• préserve, préservé

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perverse

1. inflection of pervers:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

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