▪ I. † ˈdeviate, ppl. a. Obs. rare.
[ad. late L. dēviāt-us, pa. pple. of dēviāre to turn out of the way: see next.]
Turned out of the way; remote.
| 1560 Rolland Crt. Venus i. 208 Thow art far deuiat For to conforme thy lufe to sic estait. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 196 In the way no doubt, or not farre deviat to Rages. |
Restrict Obs. rare to sense in Dict. and add: 2. [f. the n.] = deviant ppl. a., esp. of social and sexual behaviour. Cf. deviate n. 1.
| 1945 Rep. Inter-Departmental Comm. on Deviate Children (S. Afr.) I. viii. 157 If the reaction of the individual is in conflict with the generally accepted manner of reaction or differs from it in a striking way, such behaviour is deviate. 1961 R. Dalven tr. Cavafy's Compl. Poems 71 Deviate erotic drunkenness Overcomes him. 1978 Spectator (New Canaan High School, Connecticut) 61 I'm taking a real neat course from her in deviate sex. 1981 Jrnl. Clin. Psychiatry XLII. 243/2 He took up religion in an attempt to control both his drinking and deviate thoughts. |
▪ II. deviate, v.
(ˈdiːvɪeɪt)
[f. L. dēviāt- ppl. stem of dēviāre (Augustine and Vulgate), to turn out of the way, f. de- I. 2 + via way. Cf. F. dévier (Oresme, 14th c.).]
1. intr. To turn aside from the course or track; to turn out of the way; to swerve.
| 1635 Quarles Embl. iv. iii. (1718) 199 Neither stand still, nor go back, nor deviate. 1675 Ogilby Brit. Pref., Some have deviated more than a whole Degree. 1748 Anson's Voy. iii. vi. 348 Nor did they deviate in the least from their course. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xii. xi, Our travellers deviated into a much less frequented track. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xviii. 127 We hewed our steps..but were soon glad to deviate from the ice. |
2. fig. To turn aside from a course, method, or mode of action, a rule, standard, etc.; to take a different course, diverge.
| a 1633 Austin Medit. (1635) 8 We had not onely deviated, and like Sheepe gone astray, but were become Enemies. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 28 They had deviated from their duty. 1682 Dryden Mac Flecknoe 20 The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, But Shadwell never deviates into sense. 1777 Watson Philip II (1839) 165 Those who deviated, or whom he suspected of deviating, from the Catholic faith. 1824 Macaulay Ess., Mitford's Greece Wks. 1866 VII. 684 By resolutely deviating from his predecessors he is often in the right. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xvi. 108 Why I deviated from my original intention. |
b. To digress from the subject in discourse or writing.
| 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 241, I have deviated, this was discourse at dinner, not yet ended. 1823 Byron Juan ix. xli, I am apt to grow too metaphysical..And deviate into matters rather dry. |
c. To diverge or depart in opinion or practice.
| 1660 Barrow Euclid Pref. (1714) 3 It seem'd not worth my while to deviate..from him. 1811 L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. II. 79, I say nothing of sectaries: as they profess to deviate from us, they do not belong to us. |
d. Of things (usually abstract): To take a different course, or have a different tendency; to diverge or differ (from a standard, etc.).
| 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. v. 149 If ever Dead Matter should deviate from this Motion. 1770 Junius Lett. xxxvii. 181 As far as the fact deviates from the principle, so far the practice is vicious and corrupt. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. i. ii. 33 Particulars..deviating from the present methods of taking fish. 1870 Max Müller Sc. Relig. (1873) 301 Sanskrit and Greek have deviated from each other. |
3. trans. To turn (any one) out of the way, turn aside, divert, deflect, change the direction of. (lit. and fig.)
| 1660 Willsford Scales Comm. A viij b, None shall be..deviated with doubtfull directions. 1685 Cotton tr. Montaigne xxxv. (D.), To let them deviate him from the right path. 1879 Newcomb & Holden Astron. 63 The eye-lens..receives the pencil of rays, and deviates it to the observer's eye. 1894 Pop. Sci. Monthly June, If the angle of vision in one eye be deviated even to a slight degree..we see two images. |
† 4. trans. To depart from. Obs. rare.
| 1757 E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) II. 222 This primitive reason is the great criterion, which may be deviated, according as reason or conscience instructs the..mind. |
Hence ˈdeviating ppl. a.
| 1883 Pall Mall G. 13 Sept. 11/2 Ten batteries, ten deviating points, and ten induction coils have about six times the power of one battery. |
▪ III. deviate, n.
(ˈdiːvɪət)
[f. the vb.]
1. A person who, or thing which, deviates; esp. one who deviates from normal social, etc., standards or behaviour; spec. a sexual pervert.
| 1912 Pedagogical Seminary XIX. 186 To analyze and diagnose mental deviates whose deviation has caused social maladjustment. 1940 School & Society 20 Apr. 503 (title) Contribution to the IQ controversy from the study of superior deviates. 1947 Ogburn & Nimkoff Handbk. Sociol. ix. 180 Group pressure tends to cut off extreme deviates. 1952 W. J. H. Sprott Social Psychol. i. 8 He was a ‘social deviate’. Ibid. vi. 92 We do not expect uniformity, of course; there are plenty of eccentrics or ‘deviates’. |
2. Statistics. The value of a variate measured from some standard point of a distribution, usu. the mean, and usu. expressed in terms of the standard deviation of the distribution.
| 1925 R. A. Fisher Statistical Methods iii. 47 Table I. shows that the normal deviate falls outside the range {pm}1·598193 in 10 per cent of cases. 1937 C. L. Burt Backward Child ii. 22 He works out the ‘mean variation’ by taking the deviates about the general average and then averaging in turn the deviates themselves. 1967 Condon & Odishaw Handbk. Physics (ed. 2) i. xii. 179/1 If X is normally distributed with parameters m and σ, then Y = (X-m)/σ, termed a standardized normal deviate, is normally distributed with parameters 0 and 1. |