deviate meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

deviate

verb

UK /ˈdiː.vi.eɪt/ · CA, US /ˈdi.vi.eɪt/

Etymology From Late Latin dēviātus, perfect passive participle of dēviō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more. Compare French dévier.

To go off course from; to change course; to change plans.

These two circumstances, however, happening both unfortunately to intervene, our travellers deviated into a much less frequented track; and after riding full six miles, instead of arriving at the stately spires of Coventry, they found themselves still in a very dirty lane, where they saw no symptoms of approaching the suburbs of a large city.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, / May boldly deviate from the common track.1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:

1 more example

Now listen to what you've got to do, and this time if you deviate a single hair or try any of your monkey tricks it's the deep end you'll go off at.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:

Figuratively To fall outside of, or part from, some norm; to stray.

To cause to diverge.

noun

UK /ˈdiː.vi.ət/ · CA, US /ˈdi.vi.ət/

Etymology From a substantivation of Late Latin dēviātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more.

Human sciences, Sciences, Social science, Sociology A person with deviant behaviour; a deviant, degenerate or pervert.

[…] Walton has suggested that it is desirable "to name the phenomena signs of deviation, and call their possessors deviates or a deviate as the case may be […]1915, James Cornelius Wilson, A Handbook of medical diagnosis:
Under these conditions the person who appears as a deviate is a deviate only because we have chosen, somewhat arbitrarily, to call him a member of the court […]1959, Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter, Kurt W. Back, Social Pressures in Informal Groups: A Study of Human Factors in Housing:

1 more example

[…] The second confederate was also to be a deviate initially […]2001, Rupert Brown, Group Processes:

Mathematics, Sciences, Statistics A value equal to the difference between a measured variable factor and a fixed or algorithmic reference value.

It will be noted that for a deviate x = 1.5, the ordinate z will have the value .130 […]1928, Karl J. Holzinger, Statistical Methods for Students in Education:
This difference is called a deviate. When a deviate is divided by its SD a, it is called a relative deviate or a standard deviate.2001, Sanjeev B. Sarmukaddam, Indrayan Indrayan, Abhaya Indrayan, Medical Biostatistics:

1 more example

This is a deviate so the appropriate function is qt. We need to supply it with the probability (in this case p = 0.975) and the degrees of freedom...2005, Michael J. Crawley, Statistics: An Introduction Using R:

adj

Etymology From Late Latin dēviātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.

Human sciences, Sciences, Social science, Sociology deviant

It's somewhat in vogue to give special attention and consideration to the alternative lifestyle, which five years ago we would have called the deviate lifestyle.1987 February 1, Kim Westheimer, quoting John Gillespie, “Rawhide Boys”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 28, page 2:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.