maverick

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Someone who thinks and acts independently and refuses to follow the usual rules.

   He was a maverick who ignored the company's traditions.

2. 2
   adj

   Independent and unconventional in thought or behaviour.

   Her maverick approach to teaching surprised the school board.

3. 3
   noun

   A young, unbranded farm animal that has no owner's mark.

   The rancher rounded up several mavericks from the open range.

Simplified etymology

Maverick comes from the surname of Samuel Augustus Maverick, a nineteenth-century Texas cattle owner who left his calves unbranded. Americans consequently used the name for an unbranded calf or yearling, and from the 1880s it developed the figurative sense of an independent or unconventional person.

Named after Texan lawyer and politician Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. For probable origin and meaning, see Maverick. The poker noun sense (“a queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em”) may be from the theme song of the US Western television series Maverick (1957–1962), which says of the eponymous protagonist that “[g]amblin’ is his game” and that he is “livin’ on jacks and queens”.

Topics

External links

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