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[ adjective ] beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
Examples "a curious hybrid accent" "her speech has a funny twang" "had an odd name" "the peculiar aromatic odor of cloves" "something definitely queer about this town" "what a rum fellow" "singular behavior" Used in print (J. H. Hexter, "Thomas More: On the Margins...)Indeed , it is even surprising in the Canon of Christ_Church and Regius_Professor of Ecclesiastical History , who fathered this most peculiar view , and in the brilliant Professor of Medieval and Renaissance_English at Cambridge , who inherited it and is now its most eminent proponent . (Hampton Stone, The Man Who Looked Death...)You still have your paper hat and you 're wearing it , but then , it is an extraordinary paper hat and , in_addition to anything else you may be , you are also the sculptor who created that most peculiar dame out in the back_yard . (Whit Masterson, Evil Come, Evil Go....)The omission might look peculiar to outsiders , but Andy could not bring himself to go_through_the_motions simply for the sake of appearances . (S. J. Perelman, The Rising Gorge. New York:...)Very peculiar retribution indeed seems to overtake such jokers . Related terms |
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[ adjective ] unique or specific to a person or thing or category
Synonyms Examples "the particular demands of the job" "has a paraticular preference for Chinese art" "an expression peculiar to Canadians" "rights peculiar to the rich" "my own special chair" Used in print (Gibson Winter, The Suburban Captivity of the...)The vulnerability of Protestantism to social differences stems from the peculiar role of the new religious style in middle-class life , where the congregation is a vehicle of social and economic group identity and must conform , therefore , to the principle of economic integration . (John F. Hayward, "Mimesis and Symbol in the Arts"...)And although these insights into the nature of art may be in themselves insufficient for a thoroughgoing philosophy of art , their peculiar authenticity in this day and age requires that they be taken seriously and gives promise that from their very substance , new and valid chapters in the philosophy of art may be written . (Charles Wharton Stork, "Verner von Heidenstam"...)His peculiar gift , as had been suggested before , is his intensity . (Newton Stallknecht, "Ideas and Literature," in Newton S...)Accordingly we may speak_of the Platonism peculiar to Shelley 's poems or the type of Stoicism present in Henley 's `` Invictus '' , and we may find that describing such Platonism or such Stoicism and contrasting each with other expressions of the same attitude or mode of thought is a difficult and challenging enterprise . (A.L. Kroeber, "Semantic Contribution of Lexicostatistic...)Or the exception may be_due to a particular durability peculiar to the Athabascan verb . Related terms |
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[ adjective ] markedly different from the usual
Examples "a peculiar hobby of stuffing and mounting bats" "a man...feels it a peculiar insult to be taunted with cowardice by a woman"-Virginia Woolf Related terms |
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[ adjective ] characteristic of one only; distinctive or special
Examples "the peculiar character of the Government of the U.S."- R.B.Taney Related terms |
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