Adjacent Words

Freak definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

FREAK, n.
1. Literally, a sudden starting or change of place. Hence,
2. A sudden causeless change or turn of the mind; a whim or fancy; a capricious prank.
She is restless and peevish, and sometimes in a freak will instantly change her habitation.
FREAK, v.t. [Heb. to divide.]
To variegate; to checker.
Freaked with many a mingled hue.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a person or animal that is markedly unusual or deformed [syn: freak, monster, monstrosity, lusus naturae]
2: someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction; "a golf addict"; "a car nut"; "a bodybuilding freak"; "a news junkie" [syn: addict, nut, freak, junkie, junky] v
1: lose one's nerve; "When he saw the accident, he freaked out" [syn: freak out, freak, gross out]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1563 1. a. a sudden and odd or seemingly pointless idea or turn of the mind b. a seemingly capricious action or event 2. archaic a whimsical quality or disposition 3. one that is markedly unusual or abnormal: as a. a person or animal having a physical oddity and appearing in a circus sideshow b. slang (1) a sexual deviate (2) a person who uses an illicit drug c. hippie d. an atypical postage stamp usually caused by a unique defect in paper (as a crease) or a unique event in the manufacturing process (as a speck of dirt on the plate) that does not produce a constant or systematic effect 4. a. an ardent enthusiast <film freaks> b. a person who is obsessed with something <a control freak> II. adjective Date: circa 1887 having the character of a freak <a freak accident> III. verb Date: 1964 transitive verb 1. to make greatly distressed, astonished, or discomposed — often used with out <the news freaked them out> 2. to put under the influence of a psychedelic drug — often used with out intransitive verb 1. to withdraw from reality especially by taking drugs — often used with out 2. to experience nightmarish hallucinations as a result of taking drugs — often used with out 3. a. to behave irrationally or unconventionally under the influence of drugs — often used with out b. to react with extreme or irrational distress or discomposure — often used with out • freaked adjective • freaked-out adjective IV. transitive verb Etymology: perhaps from or akin to ¹freckle Date: 1637 to streak especially with color <silver and mother-of-pearl freaking the intense azure — Robert Bridges †1930>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 (also freak of nature) a monstrosity; an abnormally developed individual or thing. 2 (often attrib.) an abnormal, irregular, or bizarre occurrence (a freak storm). 3 colloq. a an unconventional person. b a person with a specified enthusiasm or interest (health freak). c a person who undergoes hallucinations; a drug addict (see sense 2 of v.). 4 a a caprice or vagary. b capriciousness. --v. (often foll. by out) colloq. 1 intr. & tr. become or make very angry. 2 intr. & tr. undergo or cause to undergo hallucinations or a strong emotional experience, esp. from use of narcotics. 3 intr. adopt a wildly unconventional lifestyle. Phrases and idioms: freak-out colloq. an act of freaking out; a hallucinatory or strong emotional experience. Etymology: 16th c.: prob. f. dial.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Freak Freak (fr[=e]k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Freaked (fr[=e]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. Freaking.] [Akin to OE. frakin, freken, freckle, Icel. freknur, pl., Sw. fr["a]kne, Dan. fregne, Gr. perkno`s dark-colored, Skr. p[.r][,c]ni variegated. Cf. Freckle, Freck.] To variegate; to checker; to streak. [R.] Freaked with many a mingled hue. --Thomson.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Freak Freak, n. [Prob. from OE. frek bold, AS. frec bold, greedly; akin to OHG. freh greedly, G. frech insolent, Icel. frekr greedy, Goth. fa['i]hufriks avaricious.] A sudden causeless change or turn of the mind; a whim of fancy; a capricious prank; a vagary or caprice. She is restless and peevish, and sometimes in a freak will instantly change her habitation. --Spectator. Syn: Whim; caprice; folly; sport. See Whim.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(freaks, freaking, freaked) 1. A freak event or action is one that is a very unusual or extreme example of its type. Weir broke his leg in a freak accident playing golf... ADJ: ADJ n 2. If you describe someone as a particular kind of freak, you are emphasizing that they are very enthusiastic about a thing or activity, and often seem to think about nothing else. (INFORMAL) Oat bran became the darling of health freaks last year. ...computer freaks. = fanatic N-COUNT: n N see also control freak 3. People are sometimes referred to as freaks when their behaviour or attitude is very different from that of the majority of people. Not so long ago, transsexuals were regarded as freaks. N-COUNT [disapproval] 4. If you refer to someone as a freak, you mean that they are physically abnormal in some way. This use could cause offence. N-COUNT [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Whim, whimsey, caprice, fancy, humor, crotchet, maggot, vagary, quirk. 2. Gambol, antic, caper.

Moby Thesaurus

Bohemian, LSD user, aberration, abnormal, abnormality, abortion, acidhead, addict, aficionado, alcoholic, amateur, androgyne, anomalous, anomaly, aspirant, aspirer, atypical, authority, baroque, beatnik, bee, bigot, bizarre, boutade, brainstorm, buff, bug, candidate, capriccio, caprice, chain smoker, character, chimera, cocaine sniffer, cokie, collector, conceit, connoisseur, coveter, crackpot, crank, craze, crazy idea, critic, crosspatch, crotchet, cubehead, curiosity, deformed, deformity, demon, desirer, deviant, devotee, dilettante, dipsomaniac, dissenter, dope fiend, doper, dropout, drug abuser, drug addict, drug user, drunkard, eager beaver, eccentric, eccentricity, energumen, enthusiast, erratic, exceptional, expert, extraordinary, fad, faddist, fan, fanatic, fanatico, fancier, fancy, fantastic notion, fantasy, fiend, flake, flimflam, flower child, fool notion, freak of nature, freakish, freakish inspiration, freaky, glue sniffer, great one for, grotesque, habitual, hankerer, harebrained idea, head, heavy smoker, heretic, hermaphrodite, hippie, hobbyist, hopeful, hophead, hound, humor, hype, idiosyncrasy, individualist, infatuate, inner-directed person, irregularity, junkie, kink, kook, lover, lunatic fringe, maggot, malconformation, malformation, malformed, maniac, marijuana smoker, maverick, megrim, methhead, misbegotten, miscreation, misfit, misshape, misshapen, monomaniac, monster, monstrosity, monstrous, mosaic, mutant, mutation, narcotics addict, naysayer, nonconformist, nonjuror, notion, nut, odd, oddball, oddity, original, passing fancy, peculiarity, pillhead, pothead, pundit, pursuer, queer, quirk, rara avis, rare, rarity, recluse, rhapsodist, rococo, savant, scholar, screwball, sectarian, sectary, snowbird, solicitant, specialist, speed freak, sport, strange, strange duck, sucker for, suitor, swinger, technical expert, technician, teratism, teratogenic, teratoid, toy, tripper, ugly duckling, unconformist, unexpected, unforeseen, unique, unparalleled, unpredictable, unpredicted, unusual, user, vagary, visionary, votary, wanter, weird, weirdo, whim, whim-wham, whimsy, wisher, yearner, yippie, zealot