freak

Definitions

1. noun

   Someone or something that is markedly unusual or unpredictable.

   Examples

   • The two-headed calf was a freak.
   • freak of nature, freak of the weather, freak of the imagination
   ≈anomaly≈outlier≈aberrant≈abnormality≈anomaly +16 more
2. noun

   A person who is extremely abnormal in appearance, social behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity, or business practices; an oddball, a unique person, originally in a displeasing or alienating way.

   Examples

   • St. Bart’s was not particularly pleased either with Lake’s methods or with their results, but kept him on because it was fashionable to have at least one distinguished freak on the staff.
   • Gentrification often starts with the artists, revolutionaries, freaks, transfolks, and queers (what I would call my people) moving into poor neighborhoods inhabited by people of color.
   ≈odd duck≈weirdo≈bizarro≈coot≈crackpot +39 more
3. noun

   A hippie.

   ≈odd duck≈weirdo≈bizarro≈coot≈crackpot +41 more
4. noun

   A drug addict.

   Example

   • Smith and Sturges [June 1969] note in their study of the San Francisco drug scene that freak means "anyone addicted to drugs."
   ≈odd duck≈weirdo≈bizarro≈coot≈crackpot +46 more
5. noun

   A person whose physique has grown far beyond the normal limits of muscular development; often a bodybuilder weighing more than 260 pounds (120 kg).

6. noun

   An enthusiast, or person who has an obsession with, or extreme knowledge of, something.

   Examples

   • Bob's a real video-game freak. He owns every games console of the last ten years.
   • Anyone […] who seems "hung up" on some idea, activity or interactional disposition, might be called a "freak."
   ≈fanatic≈geek≈admirer≈aficionado≈buff +15 more
7. noun

   A very sexually perverse individual.

   Examples

   • She's a freak in the sheets!
   • These determined souls [foot fetishists] are but the latest in a long line of foot freaks who trace their kinky lineage to ancient China, particularly the Song dynasty, which ruled until the thirteenth century when some other dynasty took over.
   ≈horn dog≈hypersexual≈pervert≈donjuanist≈erotomaniac +7 more
8. noun

   A wild dance.

   Example

   • Get your freak on.
9. noun

   A sudden change of mind.

   Examples

   • And then, with heart more hard than stone, He pick'd my marrow from the bone. To vex me more, he took a freak To slit my tongue and make me speak: But, that which wonderful appears, I speak to eyes, and not to ears.
   • It would be a great comfort to Mr. Weston, as he grew older-and even Mr. Weston might be growing older ten years hence-to have his fireside enlivened by the sports and the nonsense, the freaks and the fancies of a child never banished from home;
   ≈whim≈vagary≈caprice≈fancy≈boutade +20 more
10. noun

    A streak of colour; variegation.

    ≈superciliary≈vein