pervert
Americanverb (used with object)
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perverts,
present (3rd person singular)
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perverted,
past participle, past
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perverting
present participle
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to affect with perversion.
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to lead astray morally.
- Synonyms:
- demoralize, corrupt, seduce
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to turn away from the right course.
- Synonyms:
- divert
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to lead into mental error or false judgment.
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to turn to an improper use; misapply.
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to misconstrue or misinterpret, especially deliberately; distort.
to pervert someone's statement.
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to bring to a less excellent state; vitiate; debase.
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Pathology. to change to what is unnatural or abnormal.
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to convert or persuade to a religious belief regarded as false or wrong.
noun
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perverts
plural
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a person who practices sexual perversion.
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Pathology. a person affected with perversion.
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a person who has been perverted, or turned from what is right, especially to a religious belief regarded as erroneous.
verb
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to use wrongly or badly
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to interpret wrongly or badly; distort
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to lead into deviant or perverted beliefs or behaviour; corrupt
-
to debase
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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perverternoun
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pervertibilitynoun
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nonpervertibleadjective
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pervertibleadjective
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pervertiblyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pervertsimple
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pervertssimple
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have pervertedperfect
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has pervertedperfect
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am pervertingprogressive
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are pervertingprogressive
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is pervertingprogressive
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have been pervertingperfect progressive
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has been pervertingperfect progressive
Past
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pervertedsimple
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had pervertedperfect
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was pervertingprogressive
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were pervertingprogressive
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had been pervertingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pervert
First recorded in 1300–50; (for the verb) Middle English perverten, from Latin pervertere “to overturn, subvert,” from per- per- + vertere “to turn”; (for the noun) noun use of obsolete pervert “perverted”
Explanation
To pervert something is to corrupt it. For example, you could "pervert the course of justice" by lying on the witness stand. Another common use of pervert is as a word for a person who is sexually deviant; however, people also use this word more loosely to describe anyone who seems creepy. Perverting also means changing or subverting something. A cop who breaks the law is perverting the law. A criminal who convinces other people to become criminals is perverting them. So when you think of pervert, think change — change for the worse.
Vocabulary lists containing pervert
Antigone, Lines 710–1500
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Vocabulary from Readings 4, Unit 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Longhurst, from Nantwich, Cheshire, his mother Terry Follows, 42, Shane Hunt, 39, and 19-year-old Dane Longhurst, all from Clwyd Street in Shotton, deny the charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026
Tolkien, a scholar of Old English, studied the “theory of courage” found in poems such as the ancient epic “Beowulf,” redeeming what he called the “noble northern spirit” from the fascists who would pervert it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
They also all claim the state-run institution conspired with Fujitsu to pervert the course of justice by "deliberately and dishonestly" withholding evidence.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2025
Acting High Court of Fiji Chief Justice Salesi Temo sentenced the 70-year-old in the capital Suva on a conviction for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2024
“Go back to the early 1800s in England, before some pervert invented machinery. What was life there?”
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
“It inverts, or you might say perverts, the assumptions at the very foundation of the justification for the free market,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2024
"These are wholesome desires the poultry industry perverts into something that ends up harming animals."
From Salon ● May 10, 2023
“If terrorism and violence in the name of dissent cannot be condoned, neither can violence that is officially sanctioned. Such action perverts the legal system that alone assures the survival of our traditions,” he said.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 15, 2022
It wasn’t social satire or commentary on the lifestyle we’d all been living since March 2020: The Circle was, is, and always will be just a fun experiment in how social media perverts authenticity.
From Slate ● May 5, 2021
But this, as Mr. Payne Collier very justly feels, completely spoils the whole complexion of the epigram, and perverts a fine allusion into a raw personality.
Mr. Mladenov has offered assurances that none of these provisions will be perverted to keep Hamas in power, and he has a team including a two-star U.S. general working to prevent that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Des Jenson, Benguit's barrister, said that if police had coerced witnesses to lie, "it means that they have manufactured evidence, they've perverted the course of justice".
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026
What follows is a chorus of anecdotes, artworks and historical fragments tracing the pervasive — and sometimes perverted — roots of our everyday technologies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2025
Reprehensible such people may be, but they are motivated by a kind of perverted idealism.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2025
The light, his head, and the wall, he thought, as though he were an initiate or some perverted eclipse created without the consent of nature.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
A woman was cleared of possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and perverting the course of justice.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
A British woman has been jailed for six years in Hong Kong for blackmail and perverting the course of justice after a court found she made a false allegation of rape.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
On Friday, South Wales Police said a man from Mountain Ash had been arrested on suspicion of preventing a lawful burial and perverting the course of justice in connection with Harris's disappearance.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Their mother, Easther McCook, 51, was sentenced to two years, suspended for three years, for perverting the course of justice by providing false alibis for her sons.
From BBC ● May 29, 2026
That business in the note about “misleading and perverting the young” had been badly misunderstood and misinterpreted.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
