eccentric
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About Our Definitions: All forms of a word (noun, verb, etc.) are now displayed on one page.1ec·cen·tric
adjective \ik-ˈsen-trik, ek-\Definition of ECCENTRIC
1
2
a : deviating from a circular path; especially : elliptical 1 <an eccentric orbit> b : located elsewhere than at the geometrical center; also : having the axis or support so located <an eccentric wheel>
— ec·cen·tri·cal·ly \-tri-k(ə-)lē\ adverb
See Examples of ECCENTRIC
- He was a kind but eccentric man.
- She's become more eccentric over the years.
- It was Charles Darwin's eccentric mathematician cousin Francis Galton who in 1874 ignited the nature-nurture controversy. … —Matt Ridley, Time, 2 June 2003
- Eccentric drifters that normally roam the farthest reaches of the solar system, these daredevils fly so close to the Sun that they pass through its scorching corona. —Maggie McKee, Astronomy, December 2002
- In the spit-and-polish Navy, he and his equally unkempt colleagues were regarded as eccentric. —David M. Kennedy, Atlantic, March 1999
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Origin of ECCENTRIC
Middle English, from Medieval Latin eccentricus, from Greek ekkentros, from ex out of + kentron center
First Known Use: circa 1630
Related to ECCENTRIC
- Synonyms
- bizarre, bizarro, cranky, crazy, curious, odd, erratic, far-out, funky, funny, kinky, kooky (also kookie), offbeat, off-kilter, off-the-wall, outlandish, out-of-the-way, outré, peculiar, quaint, queer, queerish, quirky, remarkable, rum [chiefly British], screwy, spaced-out, strange, wacky (also whacky), way-out, weird, weirdo, wild
See Synonym Discussion at strange
Rhymes with ECCENTRIC
2ec·cen·tric
noun \ik-ˈsen-trik, ek-\Definition of ECCENTRIC
1
: a mechanical device consisting of an eccentric (see 1eccentric) disk communicating its motion to a rod so as to produce reciprocating motion
2
: a person who behaves in odd or unusual ways : an eccentric person
Examples of ECCENTRIC
- <an eccentric who designed his house to look like a Scottish castle>
- To his own townspeople Thoreau was a radical and an eccentric, a man without a vocation, supporting himself doing odd jobs, devoting himself to what seemed to them inconsequential rambles, and living like a hermit on the shores of Walden Pond. —Maxine Kumin, In Deep, 1987
- But Mozart was also an eccentric, brought up not as a creature of society but as a prodigious child speaking a language of sound. Mozart couldn't “handle people,” as one former friend put it. —Edward Rothstein, New York Times Book Review, 31 Oct. 1982
- It wasn't until she [Mother Teresa] had set up a leprosarium outside Calcutta on land provided by the government that I began to see her as an idealist rather than an eccentric. —Bharati Mukherjee, Time, 14 June 1999
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Origin of ECCENTRIC
(see 1eccentric)
First Known Use: 1827
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