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PERVERSE
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Deviating from what is considered moral or right or proper or good
Example:
the reprobate conduct of a gambling aristocrat
Synonyms:
depraved; perverse; perverted; reprobate
Classified under:
Similar:
corrupt (lacking in integrity)
Derivation:
perverseness; perversity (deliberately deviating from what is good)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Resistant to guidance or discipline
Example:
wayward behavior
Synonyms:
contrary; obstinate; perverse; wayward
Classified under:
Similar:
disobedient (not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority)
Derivation:
perverseness; perversity (deliberate and stubborn unruliness and resistance to guidance or discipline)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Marked by a disposition to oppose and contradict
Example:
took perverse satisfaction in foiling her plans
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
negative (characterized by or displaying negation or denial or opposition or resistance; having no positive features)
Derivation:
perverseness (deliberate and stubborn unruliness and resistance to guidance or discipline)
Context examples:
She had not deserved it; she had often been negligent or perverse, slighting his advice, or even wilfully opposing him, insensible of half his merits, and quarrelling with him because he would not acknowledge her false and insolent estimate of her own—but still, from family attachment and habit, and thorough excellence of mind, he had loved her, and watched over her from a girl, with an endeavour to improve her, and an anxiety for her doing right, which no other creature had at all shared.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Jo was not in a good humor, and the perverse fit returned, but Amy, who had virtuously done her duty, kept her temper and pleased everybody, was in a most angelic frame of mind.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But memory turned traitor, and as if possessed by the perverse spirit of the girl, would only recall Jo's oddities, faults, and freaks, would only show her in the most unsentimental aspects—beating mats with her head tied up in a bandanna, barricading herself with the sofa pillow, or throwing cold water over his passion a la Gummidge—and an irresistable laugh spoiled the pensive picture he was endeavoring to paint.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
