perversity

per·ver·si·ty

(pər-vûr′sĭ-tē)

n. pl. per·ver·si·ties

1. The quality or state of being perverse.

2. An instance of being perverse.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

perversity

(pəˈvɜːsɪtɪ)

n, pl -ties

1. the quality or state of being perverse

2. a perverse action, comment, etc

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	perversity - deliberate and stubborn unruliness and resistance to guidance or discipline contrariness, perverseness fractiousness, unruliness, wilfulness, willfulness - the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline cussedness, orneriness - meanspirited disagreeable contrariness
	2.	perversity - deliberately deviating from what is good; "there will always be a few people who, through macho perversity, gain satisfaction from bullying and terrorism" perverseness evilness, evil - the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice; "attempts to explain the origin of evil in the world"

perversity

noun

1. contrariness, intransigence, obduracy, waywardness, contradictoriness, wrong-headedness, refractoriness, contumacy, contradictiveness, frowardness (archaic) He refused out of sheer perversity.

2. perversion, abnormality, deviation, vice, wickedness, depravity, immorality, debauchery, unnaturalness, kinkiness (slang), vitiation the public's fascination with sexual perversity

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

perversity

noun

The quality or state of being stubbornly unyielding:

bullheadedness, doggedness, hardheadedness, mulishness, obstinacy, obstinateness, pertinaciousness, pertinacity, perverseness, pigheadedness, tenaciousness, tenacity, willfulness.

Translations

إنْحِراف، زَيَغان

zvrhlost

sygelighed

Verdorbenheit

perversité

òvermóîska

egensindighet

perversitate

huysuzlukmünasebetsizlik

反常

perversity

[pəˈvɜːsɪtɪ] N (= contrariness) → contrariedad f; (= obstinacy) → terquedad f, contumacia f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

perversity

[pə^rˈvɜː^rsɪti] n → perversité f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

perversity

n (= perverted nature) → Perversität f, → Widernatürlichkeit f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

perversity

[pəˈvɜːsɪtɪ] n (wickedness) → perversità, malvagità; (contrariness) → spirito di contraddizione

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

perverse

(pəˈvəːs) adjective

1. continuing to do, think etc something which one knows, or which one has been told, is wrong or unreasonable. a perverse child.

2. deliberately wrong; unreasonable. perverse behaviour.

perˈversely adverb

perˈverseness noun

perˈversity noun

References in classic literature ?

It has been my aim to make the character of "Magdalen," which personifies this struggle, a pathetic character even in its perversity and its error; and I have tried hard to attain this result by the least obtrusive and the least artificial of all means -- by a resolute adherence throughout to the truth as it is in Nature.

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"While I stood stupefied with horror by this ghastly spectacle and still holding open the door, by some unaccountable perversity my attention was diverted from the shocking scene and concerned itself with trifles and details.

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"The matter begins and ends with the boy's own perversity and folly.

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Thither he directed his steps,--running sometimes, and sometimes, with a strange perversity, loitering at a snail's pace, or stopping altogether and idly breaking the hedges with a stick.

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Furious at his perversity, and especially indignant that he professed to be ignorant of my sex, I retorted in no measured terms, "Besotted Being!

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There was a contained, prophetic energy in his utterances, even on the slightest affairs; he SAW the damned thing; if you did not, it must be from perversity of will; and this sent the blood to his head.

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So, I suppose, this obstinacy and perversity were pleasanter to them than any advantage....

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I could not help it: there was a poison in my veins that made me all ingratitude and perversity. The world welcomed me back, and I returned the compliment by sulking like the recaptured runaway I was at heart.

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The time has passed when he was an object of ridicule, and it is no longer a mark of eccentricity to defend or of perversity to extol him.

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The best of us have a spice of perversity in us, especially when we are young and in love.

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And then the beauty of it - I mean of my perversity, of my refusal to agree to a 'deal' - is just in the total absence of a reason.

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She sighed over the perversity of things in general, and croaked a little over her trials in particular, but on the whole got over her loss better than she expected, for soon she had other sorrows beside her own to comfort, and such work does a body more good than floods of regretful tears, or hours of sentimental lamentation.