Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To turn aside from a course or way.
- intransitive verb To depart, as from a norm, purpose, or subject; differ or stray. synonym: swerve.
- intransitive verb To cause to turn aside or differ.
- noun A deviant.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To turn aside or wander from the way or course; err; swerve: as, to
deviate from the common track or path, or from a true course. - To take a different course; diverge; differ.
- To cause to swerve; lead astray.
- To change the direction or position of, as a ray of light or the plane of polarization. See
biquartz .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb rare To cause to deviate.
- intransitive verb To go out of the way; to turn aside from a course or a method; to stray or go astray; to err; to digress; to diverge; to vary.
- adjective having behavior differing from that which is normal or expected, especially in an undesirable or socially disapproved manner.
- noun a person having behavior differing from that which is normal or socially acceptable; -- used especially to characterize persons whose sexual behavior is considered morally unacceptable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun sociology A person with
deviant behaviour; a deviant,degenerate orpervert . - noun statistics A value equal to the
difference between ameasured variable factor and a fixed or algorithmicreference value. - verb intransitive To go off
course from; tochange course; to change plans. - verb intransitive To fall outside of, or
part from, somenorm ; tostray .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb be at variance with; be out of line with
- verb turn aside; turn away from
- verb cause to turn away from a previous or expected course
- noun a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior
- adjective markedly different from an accepted norm
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word deviate.
Examples
-
Another issue I had was the fact that the last “release” seemed to deviate from the form of the preceding “releases” (it was not a detached report).
Review: Philippine Speculative Fiction IV (1 of 4) « BAHAY TALINHAGA 2009
-
Those who deviate from the “orthodoxy” usually do so because they made an error somewhere, which is often discovered during the peer review process.
-
Straight: Here we deviate from the standard number matching.
-
He is perfectly capable of doing that himself, but let's not deviate from the topic of this thread to attack him. jerezano
Mexican pesos bonds 2009
-
I provide my players with a primer at the beginning of every campaign that has any rule variants that I deviate from the game.
-
Forgive me, America, if I deviate from the narrative so often prescribed for occasions such as this.
Sean Carman: Let's Hear it for Politeness! Sean Carman 2010
-
Forgive me, America, if I deviate from the narrative so often prescribed for occasions such as this.
Sean Carman: Let's Hear it for Politeness! Sean Carman 2010
-
He is perfectly capable of doing that himself, but let's not deviate from the topic of this thread to attack him. jerezano
Mexican pesos bonds 2009
-
Forgive me, America, if I deviate from the narrative so often prescribed for occasions such as this.
Sean Carman: Let's Hear it for Politeness! Sean Carman 2010
-
It seems bad, but I'm hoping that the strategy actually is to not deviate from the indefensible Bush position so as to allow that the courts the opportunity to eviscerate the states secrets travesty as they should.
Discourse.net: Style, Check. Now As to the Substance.... 2009
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.