pervert

To turn another way; to divert.

Noun

One who has been perverted; one who has turned to error, or adopted a twisted sense of values or morals.
- And yet it is not only tolerated, but perverts are making to it in England and this country, — perverts among the intelligent and the learned. For these things, which I have quoted, are not accusations made in a corner,...
- […] a religious pervert is ever a doubtful product. One separated from the fellows of his youth and the faith of his fathers, by acceptance of a different religion, is of necessity more or less adrift on the sea of life...
- According to the Holy Qur'an, those who cast off God's signs and follow Satan and their caprice are perverts; they are likened to dogs […] - 2001, Ismāʻīl Salāmī, Islamic Views on Human Rights: Viewpoints of Iranian...
A person whose sexual habits are not considered acceptable.
- Those perverts were trying to spy on us while we changed clothes!
- I know more damn perverts, at schools and all, than anybody you ever met, and they're always being perverty when I'm around. - 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, chapter 24, in The Catcher in the Rye, Boston,...
Synonyms: perv

Antonyms: normophile

From Old French pervertir, itself from the Latin pervertō.

To turn another way; to divert.
- Let's follow him, and pervert the present wrath. - 1623, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline:
Synonyms: divert steer veer
To corrupt; to cause to be untrue; corrupted or otherwise impure
- How could stopping someone from killing himself or herself "pervert the course of justice"?
- He, in the serpent, had perverted Eve. - 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
- He was a good Proteſtant, but when he fell into the Jeſuits hands, they ſoon perverted him, and made him embrace the Roman Catholick Religion […] - 1690, “The Preface to the Reader”, in A Full and True Relation of the...
Synonyms: corrupt lead astray seduce
To misapply, misuse, use for a nefarious purpose
- He has perverted his talents to dishonest gain.
Synonyms: misapply misuse
to misinterpret designedly.
- pervert one's words
Synonyms: bias distort skew twist
To become perverted; to take the wrong course.
- After that worde, "better is it to dey than lyve false," and al wolde perverted people false reporte make - c. 1384, Thomas Usk, The Testament of Love: