deviant

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person whose behavior upsets other people (pejorative)

   The police chief wanted to rid downtown of the deviants.

2. 2
   adj

   Characterized by deviation from an expectation or a social standard.

   At the trial, the extent of his deviant behaviour became clear.

3. 3
   noun

   A person who deviates, especially from norms of social behavior.

   He was branded as a deviant and ostracized.

4. 4
   noun

   A thing, phenomenon, or trend that deviates from an expectation or pattern.

   As the graph shows, the March sales trend is the deviant.

5. 5
   noun

   A member of the online art community DeviantArt.

   In contrast to Flickr, deviantArt offers a broad range of user affordances, enabling both synchronous and asynchronous interpersonal and group communication, as well as networking with other deviants and the surveillance of the work of others (through the deviantWATCH affordance).

6. 6
   noun

   Alternative letter-case form of deviant (“a member of the online art community DeviantArt”).

   Matuszczak credits the advice offered up by fellow “Deviants” for his artistic and technical development. […] In such a thicket of creativity, notes Gamiddo, who says he spends up to 10 hours a week on the site, “you have to do some work to get noticed. You get what you give.” In keeping with this philosophy, he has operated over the past three years as a news administrator, heralding the latest software and contests, such as the recent competition calling for Deviants to design a new icon for the legendary metal band Megadeth.

7. 7
   adj

   markedly different from an accepted norm

8. 8
   noun

   a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior

Etymology

From Middle English devyaunt (“deviating, different”), from Late Latin dēviāns, present participle of dēviō (“to stray, deviate or detour”). The noun is from the adjective, possibly attested in Middle English with the meaning “one who goes astray”. * (DeviantArt member): So called because the website was originally for people who modified (deviated) computer applications.