pervert

From Old French pervertir, itself from the Latin pervertō.

• (noun)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpəː.vət/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɚ.vɚt/
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)və(ɹ)t
• (verb)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈvəːt/

    • Audio (Southern England)

      (file)

  • (General American) IPA^(key): /pɚˈvɚt/
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)t

pervert (plural perverts)

1. (dated) One who has been perverted; one who has turned to error; one who has turned to a twisted sense of values or morals.
2. A person whose sexual habits are not considered acceptable.

   Synonym: (slang) perv

   Antonym: normophile

   Those perverts were trying to spy on us while we changed clothes!

   • 1951, J. D. Salinger, chapter 24, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC:

     I know more damn perverts, at schools and all, than anybody you ever met, and they're always being perverty when I'm around.

• In contemporary usage, pervert is usually understood to refer to a sexually perverted person. Traditionally, the word was mainly associated with persons of false religious beliefs.

• tervert

pervert (third-person singular simple present perverts, present participle perverting, simple past and past participle perverted)

1. (transitive) To turn another way; to divert.

   Synonyms: divert, steer, veer

   • 1623, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline:

     Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath.

2. (transitive) To corrupt; to cause to be untrue; corrupted or otherwise impure

   Synonyms: corrupt, lead astray

   How could stopping someone from killing himself or herself "pervert the course of justice"?

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve.

   • 1690, “The Preface to the Reader”, in A Full and True Relation of the Great and Wonderful Revolution That Hapned Lately in the Kingdom of Siam in the East-Indies, London: Randal Taylor, page vi:

     He was a good Proteſtant, but when he fell into the Jeſuits hands, they ſoon perverted him, and made him embrace the Roman Catholick Religion […]

   • 2004 April 15, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman‎:

     A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "We can confirm that a 15-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of Jodi Jones. A 45-year-old has also been arrested in connection with allegations of attempting to pervert the course of justice. A report on this has been sent to the procurator fiscal."

3. To misapply, misuse, use for a nefarious purpose

   Synonyms: misapply, misuse

   He has perverted his talents to dishonest gain.

4. to misinterpret designedly.

   Synonym: twist

   pervert one's words

5. (intransitive) To become perverted; to take the wrong course.
   • c. 1384, Thomas Usk, The Testament of Love:

     After that worde, "better is it to dey than lyve false," and al wolde perverted people false reporte make

• perverse
• perversion

• prevert, vertrep

From the Latin verb pervertere "to overturn" or "to subvert".

pervert f

1. a pervert

• perri m
• öfuguggi m