perverse

adjective more perverse · perverser · most perverse · perversest

1. Turned aside while against something, splitting off from a thing. Any man who succeeds in diverting the public taste, or in turning back a perverse stream which will flow in the direction of the ditch, leaves a mark, as it were, and cannot be overlooked by posterity.
2. Morally wrong or evil; wicked; perverted. Looking at Barbara one would have considerable difficulty detecting a perverse side to her nature. Her expression was demure, shy, and apprehensive. But she recognized the demonic aspect of her personality and admitted it. I felt most alive when I felt most perverse. At college, sleeping with boys
3. Obstinately in the wrong; stubborn; intractable.
4. Wayward; vexing; contrary. [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.[…]Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of
5. of a verdict Ignoring the evidence or the judge's opinions.

Similar: contrary, cross, froward, intractable, petulant, stubborn, ungovernable, untoward, vexatious, vexing, wayward · Opposite: innocent, tractable, amenable

noun perverses

1. archaic A chiral opposite of something; a mirror image with opposite handedness. If two antipodal points move continuously on the sphere, they trace out what are called symmetric figures. These figures have corresponding elements equal, and are equal in area, but are not in general superposable. The one is, in fact, the perverse of the other.

verb perverses · perversing · perversed

1. archaic, nonstandard To pervert. This rule hath been always for the commodity of that kingdom, where as the powers have been thus by them perversed.