perverse
Americanadjective
-
willfully determined or disposed to go counter to what is expected or desired; contrary.
- Synonyms:
- disobedient, contumacious
- Antonyms:
- agreeable
-
characterized by or proceeding from such a determination or disposition.
a perverse mood.
-
wayward or cantankerous.
-
persistent or obstinate in what is wrong.
- Synonyms:
- headstrong, stubborn
- Antonyms:
- tractable
-
turned away from or rejecting what is right, good, or proper; wicked or corrupt.
adjective
-
deliberately deviating from what is regarded as normal, good, or proper
-
persistently holding to what is wrong
-
wayward or contrary; obstinate; cantankerous
-
archaic perverted
Related Words
See willful.
Other Word Forms
- perversely adverb
- perverseness noun
Etymology
Origin of perverse
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English, Middle French pervers, “wicked, unnatural,” from Latin perversus “facing the wrong way, askew,” past participle of pervertere “to turn around, overturn”; pervert
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Adam Smith understood that protectionism creates perverse incentives.
Such perverse incentives flow from the government’s vast mortgage backstop.
Judge John Dodd KC told Wood Green Crown Court that Chan was a "perverse and depraved" man who had "clearly lost all sense of moral compass".
From BBC
Talk about a perverse incentive for businesses not to expand.
They expect us to “consider the source of their ideas, or the cultural influences upon them, which are often malign and give them perverse incentives to acquire the ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ with which they live.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
