Perverse
adjective
Going against what is generally acceptable, especially deliberately acting in a way that is unusual or wrong.
She has some perverse desire to keep us waiting
Often appears as...
- perverse desire
- perverse pleasure
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Being stubborn and unwilling to change.
He takes a perverse pride in embarrassing her
Often appears as...
- perverse pride
- perverse refusal
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Of a sexual nature that is considered unnatural or unacceptable.
He was accused of perverse behavior
Often appears as...
- perverse behavior
- perverse act
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
adjective
Going against what is generally acceptable, especially deliberately acting in a way that is unusual or wrong.
She has some perverse desire to keep us waiting
Often appears as...
- perverse desire
- perverse pleasure
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Being stubborn and unwilling to change.
He takes a perverse pride in embarrassing her
Often appears as...
- perverse pride
- perverse refusal
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Of a sexual nature that is considered unnatural or unacceptable.
He was accused of perverse behavior
Often appears as...
- perverse behavior
- perverse act
Usage tips
Formal, Disapproving
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/3Intentionally Unusual
Used when someone knowingly behaves in an odd way.
She took perverse delight in wearing her costume out of season.
Pro Tip 2/3Provocative Actions
Describes actions aimed to upset or shock others.
His comments were not just wrong but deliberately perverse.
Pro Tip 3/3Contradictory Choices
Highlights a choice that goes against logical expectations.
Despite the cold, he made the perverse decision to swim.
Pro Tip 1/3Intentionally Unusual
Used when someone knowingly behaves in an odd way.
She took perverse delight in wearing her costume out of season.
Pro Tip 2/3Provocative Actions
Describes actions aimed to upset or shock others.
His comments were not just wrong but deliberately perverse.
Pro Tip 3/3Contradictory Choices
Highlights a choice that goes against logical expectations.
Despite the cold, he made the perverse decision to swim.
Pro Tip 1/3Intentionally Unusual
Used when someone knowingly behaves in an odd way.
She took perverse delight in wearing her costume out of season.
Pro Tip 2/3Provocative Actions
Describes actions aimed to upset or shock others.
His comments were not just wrong but deliberately perverse.
Pro Tip 3/3Contradictory Choices
Highlights a choice that goes against logical expectations.
Despite the cold, he made the perverse decision to swim.
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Video examples
David Birch: A new way...
There is no earthly reason why your name is printed on a chip-and-PIN card. And if you think about it, it's even more insidious and perverse than it seems at first. Because the only people that benefit from having the name on the card are criminals. You know what your name is, right? And when you go into a shop and buy something,
Video examples
Rebecca Galemba: How...
That's because retaliation protections are weak and immigrant day laborers don't tend to come forward because they don't trust the system to protect them. US wage and hour laws require employers to pay wages for all work completed, regardless of legal status. Otherwise, there's a perverse incentive to cheat.
Video examples
How we'll earn money in...
imagine that you are a struggling high school student. Imagine that you are at risk of dropping out of school. And yet, suppose you know that at some point in the future, no matter what, you're going to get the same basic income as everyone else. Now, to my mind, that creates a very perverse incentive
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 142 PIPE...
foot off the brake there that was not sensor it was me I think that listening to the elephant's feeding through the thicket they do look a little bit wary that that you right in front is on high alert at the moment you can see the perverse years before she moves out into
Video examples
The path to ending...
So we have this perverse incentive where union leadership ends up not really representing the values even of the rest of the union members. But they have massive, outsized negotiating power. So yes, engaging with and appropriate rightsizing of labor protections,
Video examples
Lee Mokobe: A powerful...
becomes an asterisk at the bottom of equality pages. No one ever thinks of us as human because we are more ghost than flesh, because people fear that my gender expression is a trick, that it exists to be perverse, that it ensnares them without their consent,
Video examples
Lisa Margonelli: The...
which is somewhat reasonable, because in fact, we have designed this system where, if you want to get a job, it's much more important to have a car that runs, to have a job and keep a job, than to have a GED. And that's actually very perverse.
Video examples
How technology can fight...
Do you think you'd continue doing the thing that you were doing? Would you continue doing that thing that's irritating your attacker? Online abuse has been this perverse art of figuring out what makes people angry, what makes people afraid,
Video examples
Storytelling can be...
inverted perverse funhouse mirror she is also a storyteller she weaves powerful narratives except instead of doing it to show the truth to actually help make the world a better place she does it to deceive people I mean think about how
Video examples
On reading the Koran -...
is at least in mind that are not fundamentally inflexible some of these verses are definite in meaning it says and others are ambiguous the perverse at heart will seek out the ambiguities trying to create the score by pinning
Video examples
David Birch: A new way...
There is no earthly reason why your name is printed on a chip-and-PIN card. And if you think about it, it's even more insidious and perverse than it seems at first. Because the only people that benefit from having the name on the card are criminals. You know what your name is, right? And when you go into a shop and buy something,
Video examples
Rebecca Galemba: How...
That's because retaliation protections are weak and immigrant day laborers don't tend to come forward because they don't trust the system to protect them. US wage and hour laws require employers to pay wages for all work completed, regardless of legal status. Otherwise, there's a perverse incentive to cheat.
Video examples
How we'll earn money in...
imagine that you are a struggling high school student. Imagine that you are at risk of dropping out of school. And yet, suppose you know that at some point in the future, no matter what, you're going to get the same basic income as everyone else. Now, to my mind, that creates a very perverse incentive
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 142 PIPE...
foot off the brake there that was not sensor it was me I think that listening to the elephant's feeding through the thicket they do look a little bit wary that that you right in front is on high alert at the moment you can see the perverse years before she moves out into
Video examples
The path to ending...
So we have this perverse incentive where union leadership ends up not really representing the values even of the rest of the union members. But they have massive, outsized negotiating power. So yes, engaging with and appropriate rightsizing of labor protections,
Video examples
Lee Mokobe: A powerful...
becomes an asterisk at the bottom of equality pages. No one ever thinks of us as human because we are more ghost than flesh, because people fear that my gender expression is a trick, that it exists to be perverse, that it ensnares them without their consent,
Video examples
Lisa Margonelli: The...
which is somewhat reasonable, because in fact, we have designed this system where, if you want to get a job, it's much more important to have a car that runs, to have a job and keep a job, than to have a GED. And that's actually very perverse.
Video examples
How technology can fight...
Do you think you'd continue doing the thing that you were doing? Would you continue doing that thing that's irritating your attacker? Online abuse has been this perverse art of figuring out what makes people angry, what makes people afraid,
Video examples
Storytelling can be...
inverted perverse funhouse mirror she is also a storyteller she weaves powerful narratives except instead of doing it to show the truth to actually help make the world a better place she does it to deceive people I mean think about how
Video examples
On reading the Koran -...
is at least in mind that are not fundamentally inflexible some of these verses are definite in meaning it says and others are ambiguous the perverse at heart will seek out the ambiguities trying to create the score by pinning
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
William Godwin
English Writer
Sympathy is one of the principles most widely rooted in our nature: we rejoice to see ourselves reflected in another; and, perversely enough, we sometimes have a secret pleasure in seeing the sin which dwells in ourselves existing under a deformed and monstrous aspect in another.
Quote examples
John Hodgman
American Comedian
I think that obviously, there is a perverse attraction to a fundamentally changed world or the end of the world. There is a death wish, a perverse death wish. Not just for ourselves, not just for the movie 'Death Wish,' but for the end of all human life.
Quote examples
George Akerlof
American Economist
When you give chief executives too much compensation in stock options, they concentrate too much on the stock price, and there is a perverse incentive to raise the stock price, particularly when the chief executive wants to exercise his own options.
Quote examples
Gil Penchina
American Businessman
You're under tremendous pressure, and everyone needs you to be perfect all the time, and that often creates a perverse incentive to not tell the truth. Please remember - when you get caught not telling the truth, it's over.
Quote examples
Harlan Coben
American Author
I don't necessarily love the sports per se, I love the stories behind them. Also in a kind of perverse way I like to study what it does to us, why we care so much. It's caring about something that's utterly meaningless.
Quote examples
Richard Russo
American Novelist
A lot of my characters in all of my books have a self-destructive urge. They'll do precisely the thing that they know is wrong, take a perverse delight in doing the wrong thing.
Quote examples
Hedy Lamarr
Austrian Actress
I would tell anyone who wants something from someone else to feign not wanting it. People are perverse. If you show great affection to them, they'll run the other way.
Quote examples
Zadie Smith
British Novelist
That's the thing about fiction writers: what seems alarming or particular or perverse about them is simply the shape of their brain - they cannot be otherwise.
Quote examples
Sadiq Khan
British Politician
Language is very important. If you are condoning acts of terror... you are giving credibility to a view that is perverse and is wrong.
Quote examples
Warren Buffett
American Businessman
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
Quote examples
William Godwin
English Writer
Sympathy is one of the principles most widely rooted in our nature: we rejoice to see ourselves reflected in another; and, perversely enough, we sometimes have a secret pleasure in seeing the sin which dwells in ourselves existing under a deformed and monstrous aspect in another.
Quote examples
John Hodgman
American Comedian
I think that obviously, there is a perverse attraction to a fundamentally changed world or the end of the world. There is a death wish, a perverse death wish. Not just for ourselves, not just for the movie 'Death Wish,' but for the end of all human life.
Quote examples
George Akerlof
American Economist
When you give chief executives too much compensation in stock options, they concentrate too much on the stock price, and there is a perverse incentive to raise the stock price, particularly when the chief executive wants to exercise his own options.
Quote examples
Gil Penchina
American Businessman
You're under tremendous pressure, and everyone needs you to be perfect all the time, and that often creates a perverse incentive to not tell the truth. Please remember - when you get caught not telling the truth, it's over.
Quote examples
Harlan Coben
American Author
I don't necessarily love the sports per se, I love the stories behind them. Also in a kind of perverse way I like to study what it does to us, why we care so much. It's caring about something that's utterly meaningless.
Quote examples
Richard Russo
American Novelist
A lot of my characters in all of my books have a self-destructive urge. They'll do precisely the thing that they know is wrong, take a perverse delight in doing the wrong thing.
Quote examples
Hedy Lamarr
Austrian Actress
I would tell anyone who wants something from someone else to feign not wanting it. People are perverse. If you show great affection to them, they'll run the other way.
Quote examples
Zadie Smith
British Novelist
That's the thing about fiction writers: what seems alarming or particular or perverse about them is simply the shape of their brain - they cannot be otherwise.
Quote examples
Sadiq Khan
British Politician
Language is very important. If you are condoning acts of terror... you are giving credibility to a view that is perverse and is wrong.
Quote examples
Warren Buffett
American Businessman
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
Example 1 of 10
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