pervertn.
/ˈpəːvəːt/, U.S. /ˈpərˌvərt/ 1. A person who has been perverted; spec. a person who has forsaken a doctrine or system regarded as true for one thought false (opposed to convert n. 1); an apostate.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > apostasy > [noun] > person
apostate1340
postatea1387
relapse1407
pervert1501
reneganta1525
runagate1530
reniant1532
backfaller1545
apostatrice1551
turn-tippet?1556
runaway1561
faller-away1564
reneger?1577
renegado1584
backslider1591
retrospicientc1600
relapser1608
renegade1611
runagado1614
runagade1670
fallaway1673
lapser1695
faller-out1964
1501 Lytel Treat. XV. Tokens afore Drefull Daye Jugement sig. A.3 b Thershalbe none closter of monkes not of nonnes it shalbe full of peruertes.
1661 T. Blount Glossographia (ed. 2) Pervert, one that is turned from good to evil; as Convert is the contrary.
1716 M. Davies Athenæ Britannicæ II. 316 A Popish pervert and a Protestant convert are, indeed, two different provisionals.
1795 Biogr. Anecd. Hist. Sacred & Profane 6 Most of their new converts, or rather perverts, being people of a loose life.
1859 T. De Quincey Coleridge & Opium-eating (rev. ed.) in Select. Grave & Gay XII. 95 Relapsing perverts (such is the modern slang).
1879 F. W. Farrar Life & Work St. Paul I. v. xviii. 329 That this audacious pervert [sc. Paul] should not only preach, but preach to the heathen..filled them with..rage.
1956 Classical Philol. 51 6/1 Domitian may well have resented conversions to Judaism and Christianity, regarding such converts as perverts to an ‘atheism’ which involved refusing him the divine honours to which he laid claim.
1994 Independent (Nexis) 7 July 19 One faith's pervert is another faith's convert, after all.
2. A person whose sexual behaviour or inclinations are regarded as abnormal and unacceptable.The use of the term pervert to refer to a homosexual person is now considered highly offensive; cf. note s.v. perversion n. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sexual relations > types of sexual behaviour > [noun] > sexual behaviour regarded as unconventional or unacceptable > person
pervert1856
freak1923
perv1948
secko1949
kinky1950
paraphiliac1958
paraphilic1962
prevert1962
kink1965
nonce1971
sickie1973
sicko1977
pervo1978
1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours with Mystics I. 322 The virulent fagotty-minded pervert Scheffler.
1897 H. Ellis & J. A. Symonds Sexual Inversion i. 11 A pervert whom I can trust told me that he had made advances to upwards of one hundred men.
1933 Mod. Psychologist Nov. 264/2 They are in the main pervert sexual desires, which have been repressed because they are in conflict with the ego-ideal.
1977 Gay News 24 Mar. 27/1 The word ‘pervert’ hardly seems apt to describe Douglas, in the light of such facts.
1999 A. Wheatle Brixton Rock 22 Floyd's a pervert. He goes around walking and talking in the park wearing nutten but his sticksman coat, flashing his small t'ing to old white ladies.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† pervertadj.
Obsolete.
Perverted, perverse; wicked.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > leading astray > [adjective] > affected by
forraughtc1175
perverteda1382
arsewardc1386
perversec1425
perversionatec1475
perversed1488
perverta1500
thraward?a1513
seduced1584
wronged1619
society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > [adjective] > perverse > depraved or perverted
woughc888
forraughtc1175
perverteda1382
perversionatec1475
perversed1488
perverta1500
depravate?1520
reprobate1557
prave1564
Gomorrhean1581
depraved1593
wronged1619
prevaricate1635
pravitious1649
pravous1653
depravea1711
turpitudinous1935
a1500 (c1410) Dives & Pauper (Hunterian) (1980) ii. 229 (MED) It is a comoun sawe þat þo two tungis on þe prestys schuldryn betokenyn þat þis lond hat ben twyys renegat & peruert.
1512 Act 4 Hen. VIII c. 19 Preamble Abydyng in his seid indurat & pervart opynyons.
1543 ( Chron. J. Hardyng (1812) 84 (MED) Ioseph dyd conuerte Brytons..Afore that were Payns and also peruerte.
?1550 R. Weaver Lusty Iuventus sig. B.i God which hath geuen me ye knowledge To know his doctrine from ye false & peruarte.
a1560 Arundel MS in J. A. W. Bennett Devotional Pieces (1955) 252 I peruert and misarable synnar am noucht wourthy [etc.].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
pervertv.
/pəˈvəːt/, U.S. /pərˈvərt/ 1. To turn aside (a process, action, text, etc.) from a correct state, course, or aim.† d. intransitive with reflexive meaning. To become corrupted. Obsolete. rare.
a. transitive. To interfere with or distort (a correct order or process); to impede, thwart (justice, etc.). Chiefly Law in later use, esp. in to pervert the course of justice (an indictable offence under common law in the U.K.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > leading astray > [verb (transitive)]
forteeOE
fortihtOE
bicharrea1000
perverta1382
faitc1430
perversec1475
seduce1477
seduec1485
seduct1490
wry1563
the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > leading astray > [verb (transitive)] > from justice
perverta1382
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1961) Deut. xxvii. 19 Corsed [is he] þat peruerteþ [a1425 L.V. v.r. turneth vniustly; L. pervertit] doom of comylynge, faderlees child, & wedewe.
a1450 St. Edith (Faust.) (1883) 921 (MED) Þe whelpus signifyen heretycus y-wys, þat wollen..desire To peruert þe lawe, for couetyse.
1483 Rolls of Parl. VI. 240/2 The ordre of all poletique Rule was perverted.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Acts xiii. 10 Thou ceasest not to pervert the strayght wayes off the lorde.
1620 T. Venner Via Recta viii. 181 That will peruert the concoction, and cause the meats to corrupt in the stomack.
1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis 254 The Symetry whereof being causally [perh. read casually] or purposely perverted.
1717 Hist. Rise & Fall Ct. Hotspur 35 He told the Magistrates of the Capital that they perverted Justice.
1783 P. Pott Chirurg. Wks. (new ed.) II. 76 The peristaltic motion of the whole canal is disturbed or perverted.
1868 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest II. vii. 127 Men utterly strange in speech and feeling..perverted the course of justice.
1920 Eng. Hist. Rev. 35 171 The king's thane who takes a bribe to pervert justice has to pay the king's ‘overhernesse’.
1969 MLN 84 707 Hagen the vassal perverts order time and time again by acting according to his own wishes and not those of his master, Gunther.
1994 P. J. Richardson et al. Archbold on Criminal Pleading II. 1087 It is a common law misdemeanour to pervert the course of public justice.
b. transitive. To turn aside (a text, argument, concept, etc.) from the correct meaning, use, or purpose; to misapply, misconstrue, distort.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > misinterpretation > distortion or perversion of meaning > pervert or distort [verb (transitive)]
crooka1340
deprave1382
pervertc1390
strainc1449
drawc1450
miswrest?a1475
bewrya1522
wry?1521
to make a Welshman's hose ofa1529
writhea1533
wrest1533
invert1534
wring?1541
depravate1548
rack1548
violent1549
wrench1549
train1551
wreathe1556
throw1558
detorta1575
shuffle1589
wriggle1593
distortc1595
to put, set, place, etc. on the rack1599
twine1600
wire-draw1610
monstrify1617
screw1628
corrupt1630
gloss1638
torture1648
force1662
vex1678
refract1700
warp1717
to put a force upon1729
twist1821
ply1988
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > misuse > [verb (transitive)] > misapply > pervert
miswendc1325
misturna1382
pervertc1390
transpose1509
wrestc1530
bend1531
crooken1552
intervert1603
invert1603
c1390 G. Chaucer Melibeus 2379 If thow do hem bountee, they wol peruerten it in to wikkednesse.
?a1425 tr. Catherine of Siena Orcherd of Syon (Harl.) (1966) 390 (MED) Now þei peruerte þe liȝt of kunnyng into derknes wiþ þe blyndnes of pride.
1483 ( tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage of Soul (Caxton) (1859) ii. xliii. 49 They peruertyn hooly Scripture by fals vnderstandynge.
1542 H. Brinkelow Lamentacion sig. Aviii The Supper of the Lord is peruerted, and not vsed after Christes institucyon.
1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares 83 They peruert foundations, and will not bestow the Bequeathers free almes.
1630 W. Prynne Anti-Arminianisme 118 It peruerts, it disanulls the very series, and substance of the Scripture.
1700 J. Dryden Fables Pref. sig. *Dij He has perverted my Meaning by his Glosses.
1789 D. Rittenhouse Lucy Sampson iii. ii You must know, how greatly you pervert my words.
1849 R. Cobden Speeches 9 What I stated with reference to the great mass of the French people last year was perverted.
1940 F. F. Grout Kemp's Handbk. Rocks (ed. 6) x. 237 That term has been so perverted by loose usage that it is practically valueless.
1990 Ess. in Crit. 40 264 Scepticism has been interpreted, used, modified & indeed perverted in many different ways.
c. transitive. To deflect, divert from a regular course. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > difficulty > hindrance > hindering completely or preventing > hinder completely or prevent [verb (transitive)] > obviate > prevent the occurrence of or avert
werec925
withsitc1300
shun1338
to turn awaya1382
forfend1382
declinec1430
stopa1538
divert1548
refract1563
withturn1563
antevert1583
avert1586
pervert1594
deprive1627
averruncate1663
stave1664
to stop off1891
1594 J. Dickenson Arisbas sig. H2v The windes thwarting alteration, fitly resembling the crosse course of fortunes wheele in peruerting humane actions.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) ii. iv. 151 Let's follow him, and peruert the present wrath He hath against himselfe. View more context for this quotation
1694 W. Congreve Double-dealer ii. i. 22 Reflect upon the horror of..perverting me from the road of Virtue, in which I have trod thus long, and never made one Trip.
1766 Considerations Scheme Communication Hull & Liverpool 12 Should the Navigation be perverted from the River into the Canal, there will be no Tonnage or Fund to support the Locks.
1786 R. P. Knight Acct. Worship of Priapus 22 The springs..return to their ancient channels, when the causes that perverted them are withdrawn.
1847 E. Bulwer-Lytton Word to Public 51 There is not a single attempt to create for the criminals any interest..or to pervert for one instant the channels of sympathy from their legitimate source.
1891 G. Meredith One of our Conquerors II. viii. 188 The English world at times betrayed a restiveness in the walled pathway of virtue; for, alas, it closely neighbours the French..but it is not perverted for long.
1993 V. Makowsky Susan Glaspell's Cent. Amer. Women 53 The life force always seeks expression, even if it is forced to take an alternate channel that perverts it from its true potential.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > misuse > [verb (intransitive)] > be perverted
pervert1635
1635 F. Quarles Emblemes i. i. 5 Blessings unus'd pervert into a Wast, As well as Surfeits.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > destroy [verb (transitive)] > overthrow or overturn
to-warpc888
overwarpeOE
fallOE
cumber1303
overthrowc1375
overturna1382
subverta1382
overwalta1400
sinka1400
to wend downa1400
tuyrec1400
reverse1402
tirvec1420
pervert?a1425
to put downa1425
cumrayc1425
downthringc1430
overthwart?a1439
thringc1480
subvertise1484
succumb1490
renverse1521
precipitate?1528
everta1538
wrake1570
ruinate1590
profligate1643
wreck1749
?a1425 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. ii. pr. i. 14 Fortune..hath perverted the cleernesse and the estat of thi corage.
c1475 Mankind (1969) 386 (MED) All þe menys xull be sought To perverte my condycyons and brynge me to nought.
a1500 tr. A. Chartier Traité de l'Esperance (Rawl.) (1974) 34 (MED) Salomon..helde it peacibly aftir his dissease vnto the tyme that fleschely delectes peruertid his wisedom.
1543 G. Joye George Ioye confuteth Winchesters Articles 9 So setting the carte before the horse, and..like an vngodly gardener to peruert and turne the rotes of his plantes and herbes vpward.
c1560 A. Scott Poems (1896) xxxiv. 53 Ȝour play [is] sone peruertit.
1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alphabet. Peruert, ouerthrowe, or turne up side downe.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia Pervert, to overthwart, to turn upside down; to subvert, corrupt, destroy, &c.
3. † a. transitive. To turn (a person) away from a religious belief regarded as true, to one held to be false. Opposed to convert v. 9. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > apostasy > renounce (God or Christ) [verb (transitive)] > make
perverta1425
a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) 1 Cor. Prol. 338 Summe weren peruertid of eloquence of filosofie ful of wordis; othere men weren led in to the sect of the lawe of Jewis.
a1450 York Plays (1885) 224 He pervertis oure pepull.
a1500 (c1400) St. Erkenwald (1977) 10 (MED) Þe Saxones..peruertyd alle þe pepul þat in þat place dwellide.
1520 Chron. Eng. iv. f. 38v/2 He was perverted by the heresy of the Ariens.
1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Familye of Loue Brief Descr. sig. ☛iijv To peruert and turne from the truth xii godly Christians which were Martyred.
1666 E. Mountagu in 12th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1890) App. v. 8 If the young Lord was a strict and a grounded Papist there was some danger my Lady Dorothy might bee perverted.
1710 D. Manley Mem. Europe I. ii. 225 They were most of 'em Irene's creatures, whom she had perverted to idolatry.
1770 J. R. Forster tr. P. Kalm Trav. N. Amer. (1772) II. 106 It seems that they have been rather perverted than converted.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 87 Walker..with some fellows and undergraduates whom he had perverted, heard mass daily in his own apartments.
1897 Dict. National Biogr. at Rupert, Prince She feared that her son might be perverted to catholicism.
b. transitive. gen. To turn aside (a person, the mind, etc.) from right opinion or action; to lead astray; to exercise a harmful influence on; to misguide; to corrupt.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > degrading or impairing morally > degrade or impair morally [verb (transitive)] > pervert or deprave
bicharrea1100
crooka1340
subvertc1384
pervertc1425
traverse1438
overthwartc1450
perversec1475
deprave1482
crooken1552
preposterate1566
depravate1847
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > degrading or impairing morally > degrade or impair morally [verb (transitive)] > pervert or deprave > judgement, ways, etc.
pervertc1425
debauch1664
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) ii. 4882 (MED) He was..of wil inmvtable Vp-on what þing he onys set his herte, Þat doubilnes myȝt hym nat peruerte.
c1480 (a1400) St. Agnes 237 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 353 Hir..þat þis wichcrafte has done, & peruertis thocht and wil of al þat treutht giffis hir til.
a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (Harl. 7333) (1879) 321 Ȝiftis blyndith þe yen of iugis And peruertith or turnith into wers wise men.
1593 in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. III. 172 Seminarie Priests, Jhesuits..sent hither to pervert such as are dutiefull and well inclyned.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost x. 3 How Hee [sc. Satan] in the Serpent had perverted Eve, Her Husband shee. View more context for this quotation
1710 R. Steele Tatler No. 111. ⁋2 A Mind that is not perverted and depraved by wrong Notions.
1751 C. Lennox Harriot Stuart II. 96 You have been the means of perverting his principles.
1810 S. Green Romance Readers I. x. 31 The refined understanding of Lady Isabella was perverted to the worst of purposes.
1859 J. S. Mill On Liberty ii When we forbid bad men to pervert society by the propagation of opinions which we regard as false and pernicious.
1931 E. Pound Let. 6 Oct. (1971) 235 No lousy ploot can object on the grounds of her not bein' a lady or bein' likely to pervert the growing school child.
1991 Film Comment Mar. 72/1 Apache..upends Western clichés, more or less endorsing the counterstereotype of Noble Savage perverted by palefaces.
c. intransitive. To turn aside from the right course; to be led astray; spec. to become a religious pervert. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > erring > [verb (intransitive)]
misfareeOE
failc1290
stumblec1325
errc1374
crookc1380
miscarryc1390
swervea1400
delire?a1475
pervertc1475
misguide1480
prevaricate1582
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > degenerate [verb (intransitive)] > become corrupt
rot?c1225
pervertc1475
putrefya1500
corrupt1598
gangrene1618
deprave1655
stink1934
c1475 Wisdom (Folger) (1969) 292 Abowe all þis ȝe haue free wyll; Off þat be ware befor all thynge, For yff þat perverte, all þis dothe spyll.
a1500 in C. Monro Lett. Margaret of Anjou (1863) 167 I perverted to the Sowden in feythe.
1532 (c1385) Usk's Test. Loue in Wks. G. Chaucer i. f. cccxxxv So that in nothynge thy kynde from his wyl declyne, ne from his nobley peruerte.
1688 P. Pett Happy Future State of Eng. Pref. sig. A* Our Courts Christian, which proceeding against some perverted to the Church of Rome, impute to them the Crime of Apostacy.
a1739 S. Wesley Poems Several Occasions (1743) 188 But Fools, the Means of Grace allow'd, Pervert to their Damnation.
1890 Graphic 11 Oct. 420/3 1593, the year when Henry perverted to Roman Catholicism.
1905 Daily Chron. 21 Aug. 3/2 John surrendered to the Pope to avoid surrender to his people... He found the means of escape by perverting.
4. transitive. Geometry. To reverse the transverse directions of (a figure, object, etc.), so as to form the mirror image; to invert. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > geometry > geometric space > divide geometric space [verb (transitive)] > reverse directions of
pervert1890
1890 Cent. Dict. Pervert v., to perform the geometrical operation of perversion upon (any figure).
1900 J. Larmor Æther & Matter 209 Enantiomorphy [of a molecule] reverses the signs of all its electrons and perverts their relative position.
Derivatives
perˈverting n. and adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > leading astray > [adjective]
pervertinga1450
seducing?1574
debauching1645
lenocinant1664
perversive1753
denaturalizing1820
society > faith > aspects of faith > apostasy > [noun]
renoirie1340
apostasyc1380
recidivationa1425
perversiona1450
pervertinga1450
relapsec1475
resiluation1513
departing1526
residuationa1535
back-starting1535
backsliding1554
abrenunciation1557
recreant1570
backslide1586
relapsing1591
recreantness1611
apostating1648
recadency1648
apostatizing1659
lapse1660
apostatism1814
renegadism1823
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > misinterpretation > distortion or perversion of meaning > [noun]
wrestingc1444
pervertinga1450
corruptiona1513
straining1528
writhing?1532
hacking1539
violence1546
racking1556
wrying1562
wringing1565
detorting1579
wrest1581
detortion1598
wrench1603
torture1605
distorting1610
violencing1612
refraction1614
misacception1629
distortion1650
distorture1709
misacceptation1721
torturing1753
verbicide1826
stretch1849
twisting1890
queeringness1955
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > misuse > [noun] > misapplication > perversion
pervertinga1450
corrupting1565
inversion1616
perversion1622
obtortion1650
corruption1654
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > degrading or impairing morally > [adjective] > perverting
perverting1665
denaturalizing1820
a1450 (a1387) Prol. Comm. on Matthew 45 (MED) It semeth to comaunde trespas or noiyng of neiȝbore, either peruertyng of soule; therfore it is figuratijf speche.
1533 W. Tyndale Supper of Lord in Wks. (1573) 460 A great tunne full of Mores mischief and pernicious peruertyng of Gods holy worde.
1665 R. Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. xii. sig. Ff1 Of so perverting a Nature, is so high a Station.
1751 R. Morris Life John Diamond in Lib. Impostors (1926) I. xx. 243 It was a great perverting of the design of providence, to turn it to wrong, or even trifling purposes.
1837 T. Carlyle in London & Westm. Rev. Jan. 401 In the old Marquis there dwells withal..a latent fury and fuliginosity very perverting.
1998 Newsday (Nexis) 28 Dec. a33 This wailing about campaign finance reform is nothing but a smokescreen to distract us from the true perverting of our election system.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1501
adj.a1500v.a1382