Perverse

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: per=verse

CIDE DICTIONARY

Perverse, a. [L. perversus turned the wrong way, not right, p. p. of pervertereto turn around, to overturn: cf. F. pervers. See Pervert.].

•  Turned aside; hence, specifically, turned away from the right; willfully erring; wicked; perverted.  [1913 Webster]

  "The only righteous in a word perverse."  [1913 Webster]
•  Obstinate in the wrong; stubborn; intractable; hence, wayward; vexing; contrary.  [1913 Webster]

  "To so perverse a sex all grace is vain."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Froward; untoward; wayward; stubborn; ungovernable; intractable; cross; petulant; vexatious.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Perverse, adj.
1 (of a person or action) deliberately or stubbornly departing from what is reasonable or required.
2 persistent in error.
3 wayward; intractable; peevish.
4 perverted; wicked.
5 (of a verdict etc.) against the weight of evidence or the judge's direction.

Derivative

perversely adv. perverseness n. perversity n. (pl. -ies).

Etymology

ME f. OF pervers perverse f. L perversus (as PERVERT)

THESAURUS

Perverse

aberrant, abroad, adamant, adrift, adversary, adversative, adverse, adversive, alien, all abroad, all off, all wrong, amiss, antagonistic, anti, antipathetic, antithetic, antonymous, askew, astray, at cross-purposes, at fault, awkward, awry, bad-tempered, balancing, balky, bearish, beside the mark, bilious, bitchy, breakaway, bulky, cankered, cantankerous, captious, churlish, clashing, clumsy, compensating, competitive, con, conflicting, confronting, contentious, contradicting, contradictory, contradistinct, contrapositive, contrarious, contrary, contrasted, converse, corrupt, counter, counteractant, counteracting, counteractive, counterbalancing, counterpoised, countervailing, counterworking, crabbed, crabby, cranky, cross, cross-grained, crosswise, crotchety, crusty, cumbersome, cussed, dead against, deceptive, defective, degenerate, delusive, depraved, deviant, deviational, deviative, difficult, disaccordant, disagreeable, discordant, discrepant, dissentient, dissident, distorted, enemy, errant, erring, erroneous, excitable, eyeball to eyeball, fallacious, false, faultful, faulty, feisty, flawed, fractious, froward, grouchy, headstrong, heretical, heterodox, hostile, huffish, huffy, hulking, hulky, ill-tempered, illogical, illusory, impractical, improper, inconsistent, inconvenient, incorrect, inflexible, inimical, intractable, inverse, irascible, irregular, irritable, mean, miscreant, mulish, nefarious, negative, nonconformist, noncooperative, not right, not true, obdurate, obstinate, obstreperous, obverse, off, off the track, opponent, opposed, opposing, opposite, oppositional, oppositive, oppugnant, ornery, out, overthwart, peccant, peevish, pertinacious, perverted, petulant, pigheaded, ponderous, putrid, quarrelsome, reactionary, recalcitrant, refractory, renitent, repugnant, resistant, restive, reverse, revolutionary, rival, rotten, self-contradictory, self-willed, snappish, spiteful, spleeny, splenetic, squared off, stiff-necked, straying, stubborn, stuffy, sulky, sullen, surly, testy, touchy, ugly, unbending, uncooperative, unfactual, unfair, unfavorable, unfriendly, unhandy, unhealthy, unmanageable, unorthodox, unpropitious, unproved, unreasonable, untrue, unwieldy, unyielding, villainous, waspish, wayward, wide, wrong, wrongheaded

ROGET THESAURUS

Perverse

Obstinacy

N obstinacy, obstinateness, obstinacy, tenacity, cussedness, perseverance, immovability, old school, inflexibility, obduracy, obduration, dogged resolution, resolution, ruling passion, blind side, self-will, contumacy, perversity, pervicacy, pervicacity, indocility, bigotry, intolerance, dogmatism, opiniatry, opiniativeness, fixed idea, fanaticism, zealotry, infatuation, monomania, opinionatedness opinionativeness, mule, opinionist, opinionatist, opiniator, opinator, stickler, dogmatist, bigot, zealot, enthusiast, fanatic, obstinate, tenacious, stubborn, obdurate, casehardened, inflexible, balky, immovable, unshakable, not to be moved, inert, unchangeable, inexorable, mulish, obstinate as a mule, pig-headed, dogged, sullen, sulky, unmoved, uninfluenced unaffected, willful, self-willed, perverse, resty, restive, restiff, pervicacious, wayward, refractory, unruly, heady, headstrong, entete, contumacious, crossgrained, arbitrary, dogmatic, positive, bigoted, prejudiced, creed- bound, prepossessed, infatuated, stiff-backed, stiff necked, stiff hearted, hard-mouthed, hidebound, unyielding, impervious, impracticable, inpersuasible, unpersuadable, intractable, untractable, incorrigible, deaf to advice, impervious to reason, crotchety, obstinately, non possumus, no surrender, ils n'ont rien appris ne rien oublie.

Difficulty

N difficulty, hardness, impracticability, tough work, hard work, uphill work, hard task, Herculean task, Augean task, task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift, dilemma, embarrassment, deadlock, perplexity, intricacy, entanglement, complexity, cross fire, awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus, net, meshes, maze, coil, crooked path, involvement, nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point, vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, paradox, hard nut to crack, nut to crack, bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the shoe pinches, nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt, critical situation, crisis, trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble, scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, pretty kettle of fish, pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado, false position, set fast, stand, standstill, deadlock, dead set, fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac, hitch, stumbling block, crab, curmudgeon, difficult, not easy, hard, tough, troublesome, toilsome, irksome, operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable, sooner said than done, more easily said than done, easier said than done, difficult to deal with, hard to deal with, ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby, not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water, awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable, intractable, stubborn, perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged, knotted, knotty, invious, pathless, trackless, labyrinthine, intricate, complicated, impracticable, not feasible, desperate, embarrassing, perplexing, delicate, ticklish, critical, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties, under a difficulty, in a box, in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape, in deep water, in a fine pickle, in extremis, between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis, surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands, at cross purposes, not out of the wood, reduced to straits, hard pressed, sorely pressed, run hard, pinched, put to it, straitened, hard up, hard put to it, hard set, put to one's shifts, puzzled, at a loss, at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill, graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground, stuck fast, set fast, up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall, au bout de son Latin, out of one's depth, thrown out, accomplished with difficulty, hard-fought, hard-earned, with difficulty, with much ado, barely, hardly, uphill, against the stream, against the grain, d rebours, invita Minerva, in the teeth of, at a pinch, upon a pinch, at long odds, against long odds, ay there's the rub, hic labor hoc opus, things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti, ad astra per aspera, acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire.

Discourtesy

N discourtesy, ill breeding, ill manners, bad manners, ungainly manners, insuavity, uncourteousness rusticity, inurbanity, illiberality, incivility displacency, disrespect, procacity, impudence: barbarism, barbarity, misbehavior, brutality, blackguardism, conduct unbecoming a gentleman, grossieret_e, brusquerie, vulgarity, churlishness, spinosity, perversity, moroseness, sternness, austerity, moodishness, captiousness, cynicism, tartness, acrimony, acerbity, virulence, asperity, scowl, black looks, frown, short answer, rebuff, hard words, contumely, unparliamentary language, personality, bear, bruin, brute, blackguard, beast, unlicked cub, frump, crosspatch, saucebox, crooked stick, grizzly, discourteous, uncourteous, uncourtly, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-behaved, ill-conditioned, unbred, unmannerly, unmannered, impolite, unpolite, unpolished, uncivilized, ungenteel, ungentleman-like, ungentlemanly, unladylike, blackguard, vulgar, dedecorous, foul- mouthed foul-spoken, abusive, uncivil, ungracious, unceremonious, cool, pert, forward, obtrusive, impudent, rude, saucy, precocious, repulsive, uncomplaisant, unaccommodating, unneighborly, ungallant, inaffable, ungentle, ungainly, rough, rugged, bluff, blunt, gruff, churlish, boorish, bearish, brutal, brusque, stern, harsh, austere, cavalier, taint, sour, crabbed, sharp, short, trenchant, sarcastic, biting, doggish, caustic, virulent, bitter, acrimonious, venomous, contumelious, snarling, surly, surly as a bear, perverse, grim, sullen, peevish, untactful, impolitic, undiplomatic, artless, discourteously, with discourtesy, with a bad grace.

Sullenness

N sullenness, morosity, spleen, churlishness, irascibility, moodiness, perversity, obstinacy, torvity, spinosity, crabbedness, ill temper, bad temper, ill humor, bad humor, sulks, dudgeon, mumps, dumps, doldrums, fit of the sulks, bouderie, black looks, scowl, grouch, huff, sullen, sulky, ill-tempered, ill-humored, ill-affected, ill- disposed, grouty, in an ill temper, in a bad temper, in a shocking temper, in an ill humor, in a bad humor, in a shocking humor, out of temper, out of humor, knaggy, torvous, crusty, crabbed, sour, sour as a crab, surly, moody, spleenish, spleenly, splenetic, cankered, cross, crossgrained, perverse, wayward, humorsome, restiff, restive, cantankerous, intractable, exceptious, sinistrous, deaf to reason, unaccommodating, rusty, froward, cussed, dogged, grumpy, glum, grim, grum, morose, frumpish, in the sulks, out of sorts, scowling, glowering, growling, grouchy, peevish.