6 uses
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Definition
not what is expected, or considered proper
or: having the opposite effect of what is desired
or: having the opposite effect of what is desired
- Mrs. Penniman also was silent; Morris Townsend had told her that her niece preferred, unromantically, an interview in a chintz-covered parlour to a sentimental tryst beside a fountain sheeted with dead leaves, and she was lost in wonderment at the oddity—almost the perversity— of the choice.Chapter 9 (**% in)
- She would try to appear good, even if her heart were perverted; and from time to time she had a fancy that she might accomplish something by ingenious concessions to form, though she should persist in caring for Morris.Chapter 19 (85% in)
- "Oh, botheration!" he exclaimed perversely.Chapter 28 (77% in)
- He was certainly perverse.Chapter 28 (93% in)
- She was really too perverse.Chapter 30 (60% in)
- A certain amount of perversity was to be allowed for in a young lady whose lover had thrown her over; but not such an amount as would prove inconvenient to his apologists.Chapter 30 (60% in)
There are no more uses of "perverse" in Washington Square.
Typical Usage
(best examples)