pervert

Noun

pervert (plural perverts)

1. (dated) One who has been perverted; one who has turned to error, or adopted a twisted sense of values or morals.
   • And yet it is not only tolerated, but perverts are making to it in England and this country, — perverts among the intelligent and the learned. For these things, which I have quoted, are not accusations made in a corner, but have been published in the face of the world by one of the profoundest...1867, Stephen Elliott, Sermons, page 382
   • […] a religious pervert is ever a doubtful product. One separated from the fellows of his youth and the faith of his fathers, by acceptance of a different religion, is of necessity more or less adrift on the sea of life […]1925, The Dalhousie Review, volume 5, page 115
2. A person whose sexual habits are not considered acceptable.
   • Those perverts were trying to spy on us while we changed clothes!
   • I know more damn perverts, at schools and all, than anybody you ever met, and they're always being perverty when I'm around.1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, chapter 24, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   perv

   Antonyms:

   normophile

Verb

UK/pəˈvəːt/US/pɚˈvɚt/

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

1. (transitive) To turn another way; to divert.
   • Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath.1623, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline

   Synonyms:

   divert, steer, veer

2. (transitive) To corrupt; to cause to be untrue; corrupted or otherwise impure
   • How could stopping someone from killing himself or herself "pervert the course of justice"?
   • He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve.1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

   Synonyms:

   corrupt, lead astray, seduce

3. To misapply, misuse, use for a nefarious purpose
   • He has perverted his talents to dishonest gain.

   Synonyms:

   misapply, misuse

4. to misinterpret designedly.
   • pervert one's words

   Synonyms:

   bias, distort, skew, twist

5. (intransitive) To become perverted; to take the wrong course.
   • After that worde, "better is it to dey than lyve false," and al wolde perverted people false reporte makec. 1384, Thomas Usk, The Testament of Love