Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not ordinary or usual; odd or strange: synonym: strange.
- adjective Belonging distinctively or primarily to one person, group, or kind; special or unique.
- noun A privilege or property that is exclusively one's own.
- noun Chiefly British A church or parish under the jurisdiction of a diocese different from that in which it lies.
from The Century Dictionary.
- One's own; pertaining to one, not to many; of private, personal, or characteristic possession and use; with to, belonging specially or particularly.
- … Particular; distinct; individual.
- Special; particular; select.
- Singular; unusual; uncommon; odd: as, the man has something peculiar in his manner.
- A religious denomination found in Essex, Sussex, Surrey, and principally in Kent, England, which believes that one may immediately cease from sin and become perfect in moral life and in spiritual perception. They therefore have no preachers, creeds, ordinances, or church organization. They also profess to rely wholly upon prayer for the cure of disease. Also called
Plumstead Peculiars , from the place in which the sect originated. Synonyms Particular, etc. Seespecial . - noun Exclusive property; that which belongs to one to the exclusion of others.
- noun A person or thing that is peculiar: as, the Plumstead Peculiars.
- noun In canon law, a particular parish or church which is exempted from the jurisdiction of the ordinary or bishop in whose diocese it lies, such as a royal peculiar (a sovereign's free chapel, exempt from any jurisdiction but that of the sovereign); a parish or church pertaining to an archbishop, bishop, dean, chapter, or prebendary, etc., which is not under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is situated, but under that of some other archbishop, bishop, dean, etc.
- noun In colonial and provincial Massachusetts, a parish, precinct, or district not yet erected into a town; a portion set off from a town and made independent of it in respect to all or most matters of local administration, but not in respect to choosing a representative to the General Court.
- noun A mistress.
- noun In Oxford, a nickname for an Evangelical.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective One's own; belonging solely or especially to an individual; not possessed by others; of private, personal, or characteristic possession and use; not owned in common or in participation.
- adjective Particular; individual; special; appropriate.
- adjective Unusual; singular; rare; strange.
- noun That which is peculiar; a sole or exclusive property; a prerogative; a characteristic.
- noun (Eng. Canon Law) A particular parish or church which is exempt from the jurisdiction of the ordinary.
- noun (Eng. Law) a branch of the Court of Arches having cognizance of the affairs of peculiars.
- noun See under
Dean , 1.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Out of the
ordinary ;odd ;curious ;unusual . - adjective
Common orusual for a certain place or circumstance;specific orparticular .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective unique or specific to a person or thing or category
- adjective characteristic of one only; distinctive or special
- adjective beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
- adjective markedly different from the usual
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing, by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of _peculiar_ injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was heard in my defence. "
The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc. Vol. I Thomas Barnes Cochrane Dundonald 1873
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I use the term peculiar, as expressive of the disorganized manner in which I have been compelled to prosecute the work.
Journal of the thirty-fifth Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Mississippi, Episcopal Church. Diocese of Mississippi. Convention 1861
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The Virginia Historical Society, which has been collecting since 1831, owns a surfeit of what it calls "peculiar, perplexing or even grotesque objects" that "provide insight into the hopes, fears, assumptions and practices of the past."
Virginia Historical Society's odd gems offer uncommon insights into the past 2011
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Now it turns out that it is a term peculiar to meterologists.
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From time to time they resume forgotten expressions in their vocabulary, which they restore to use; or they borrow from some particular class of the community a term peculiar to it, which they introduce with a figurative meaning into the language of daily life.
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From time to time they resume forgotten expressions in their vocabulary, which they restore to use; or they borrow from some particular class of the community a term peculiar to it, which they introduce with a figurative meaning into the language of daily life.
Democracy in America — Volume 2 Alexis de Tocqueville 1832
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Mohammedans take as a title peculiar to themselves.
The Koran (Al-Qur'an) George Sale 1716
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Be that as it may, it is shady, elegant, convenient, luxuriant, and snug; a term peculiar to English comfort, and not translated into any other language.
Letters of the Late Lord Littelton Baron Thomas Lyttelton Lyttelton , William Combe 1812
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Others fold the sheets with an evenness and rapidity that only long practice can give; others, again, stamp each sheet in the corner with a die; and still others fold the reams -- after they have been pressed together -- into the pretty, colored wrappers prepared for them, sealing them with wax, and putting the packages, two together, into heavy brown papers, which are closed with the label peculiar to the special brand of paper.
Katie Robertson A Girls Story of Factory Life Margaret E. Winslow
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It is true that, long before this epoch, the Bifhop of Rome had been (tiled Pope or Father, but fo were the Bilhops of Jerufalem, Antioch and Alex - andria; nor was the title peculiar to them.
Strictures on the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Ireland:: From the Most Ancient Times ... 1789
reesetee commented on the word peculiar
My mom's description of...er...odd people.
October 24, 2007
bilby commented on the word peculiar
A town in Cass County, Missouri, United States.
December 9, 2008