All 6 Uses of
perverse
in
Washington Square, by Henry James
- 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.†
Chpt 9 *
- 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.†
Chpt 19perverted = deviated from what is considered reasonable, proper, or good
- "Oh, botheration!" he exclaimed perversely.†
Chpt 28
- He was certainly perverse.†
Chpt 28
- She was really too perverse.†
Chpt 30
- 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.†
Chpt 30
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