perverse

1 easily irritated or annoyed how can you be so cheerful one day, and so perverse the next? Synonyms choleric, crabby, cranky, cross, crotchety, fiery, grouchy, grumpy, irascible, peevish, irritable, pettish, petulant, prickly, quick-tempered, raspy, ratty, short-tempered, snappish, snappy, snarky, snippety, snippy, stuffy, testy, waspishRelated Words bearish, bilious, cantankerous, cross-grained, curmudgeonly, disagreeable, dyspeptic, ill-humored, ill-natured, ill-tempered, off-color (or off-colored), ornery, querulous, snarly, surly; argumentative, bellicose, belligerent, combative, contentious, disputatious, fractious, fretful, pugnacious, quarrelsome, scrappy, truculent; huffy, pouty, sensitive, short, sulky, sullen, tetchy, thin-skinned, touchy; hot-blooded, passionateNear Antonyms affable, companionable, cordial, extroverted (also extraverted), friendly, genial, gregarious, outgoing, sociable; agreeable, amiable, good-natured, good-tempered, sweet, well-disposed; carefree, easygoing, happy-go-lucky, relaxed; forbearing, long-suffering, obliging, patient, stoic (or stoical), tolerant, uncomplaining, understanding

2 having or showing lowered moral character or standards social conservatives who believe that Hollywood is a perverse world that exerts an unhealthy influence on the young Synonyms debased, debauched, decadent, degenerate, degraded, demoralized, depraved, dissipated, dissolute, jackleg, libertine, loose, corrupt, perverted, rakehell (or rakehelly), rakish, reprobate, sick, unclean, unwholesome, warpedRelated Words bent [chiefly British], crooked, cutthroat, dishonest, unethical, unprincipled, unscrupulous; contaminated, spoiled, tainted; bad, evil, immoral, iniquitous, miscreant, nefarious, sinful, vicious, wickedNear Antonyms incorruptible; ethical, honest, principled; good, moral, righteous, virtuousAntonyms pure, uncorrupt, uncorrupted

3 sticking to an opinion, purpose, or course of action in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion a fact so self-evident that not even the most perverse of opponents could deny it Synonyms adamant, adamantine, bullheaded, dogged, hard, hardened, hardheaded, hard-nosed, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inconvincible, inflexible, intransigent, mulish, obdurate, opinionated, ossified, pat, pertinacious, obstinate, pigheaded, self-opinionated, self-willed, stiff-necked, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful)Related Words anal-retentive, obsessive; wayward, wrongheaded; determined, hell-bent, inexorable, persistent, relentless, resolved, set, single-minded, steadfast, stouthearted, tenacious, unflinching; firm, hard-line, hard-shell (or hard-shelled), iron, severe, stern, strict; hidebound, narrow-minded, rigid; bloody-minded [chiefly British], cantankerous; contrary, cussed; contumacious, disobedient, froward, insubordinate, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly; defiant, insurgent, mutinous; indomitable, invincible, unconquerable; confirmed, inveterate, unregenerate; demanding, exactingNear Antonyms docile, obedient, placable, submissive, tractable; accepting, persuadable, receptive, responsive, willing; governable, manageable, reasonable, temperate; slavish, subservientAntonyms acquiescent, agreeable, amenable, compliant, complying, flexible, pliable, pliant, relenting, yielding

4 not appropriate for a particular occasion or situation a convicted criminal seemed like a perverse choice for scoutmaster Synonyms amiss, graceless, improper, inapposite, inapt, incongruous, incorrect, indecorous, inept, infelicitous, malapropos, inappropriate, unapt, unbecoming, unfit, unhappy, unseemly, unsuitable, untoward, wrongRelated Words inopportune, unfortunate, unseasonable, untimely; extraneous, immaterial, inapplicable, irrelative, irrelevant; misbecoming, mismatched; incompatible, inconsistent, uncongenial; bad, naughty, sinful; blamable, blameworthy, censurable; banned, barred, disallowed; forbidden, interdicted, outlawed, prohibited, proscribed; awkward, gauche, ungraceful; unacceptable, unsatisfactoryNear Antonyms fortunate, opportune, seasonable, timely; applicable, apposite, apropos, apt, germane, material, pat, pointed, relative, relevant; compatible, congenial, harmonious; allowed, authorized, permitted; approved, endorsed (also indorsed), kosher, licensed, sanctioned; abetted, encouraged, promoted, supported; acceptable, adequate, all right, decent, fine, OK (or okay), passable, respectable, satisfactory, tolerable; commendable, creditable, exemplary; blameless, irreproachable; balanced, companionate, congruous, consonant, harmoniousAntonyms appropriate, becoming, befitting, correct, decorous, felicitous, fit, fitting, genteel, happy, meet, proper, right, seemly, suitable