freak
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: bodybuilding
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
Etymology: First appears c. 1567. The sense "sudden change of mind, a whim" is of uncertain origin. Probably from a dialectal word related to Middle English frekynge (“capricious behavior; whims”) and Middle English friken, frikien (“to move briskly or nimbly”), from Old English frīcian (“to leap, dance”), or Middle English frek (“insolent, daring”), from Old English frec (“desirous, greedy, eager, bold, daring”), from Proto-West Germanic *frek, from Proto-Germanic *frekaz, *frakaz (“hard, efficient, greedy, bold, audacious”) (in which case, it would be related to the noun under Etymology 2). Compare Old High German freh (“eager”), Old English frēcne (“dangerous”).
For the meaning development compare Russian заско́к (zaskók) akin to скок (skok), скака́ть (skakátʹ).
Inflected forms:
form: freaks
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: freake
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: freik
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: freke
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: frick
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: freaks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: freaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: freaked
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: freaked
pos: verb
tags: past
form: freake
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: freik
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: freke
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: frick
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: freake
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: freik
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: freke
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: frick
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Someone or something that is markedly unusual or unpredictable.
pos: noun
examples: The two-headed calf was a freak.
freak of nature, freak of the weather, freak of the imagination
[H]aving a dinner-party at his rooms to entertain some friends from London, nothing would satisfy Mr. Foker but painting Mr. Buck’s door vermilion, in which freak he was caught by the proctors …
[A policeman] saw [Harriet Robinson] in a pair of corduroy trousers, an old gray jacket, and without a hat, singing an Irish song...when [he] asked her what she meant by it, she said that they were only having a lark, and that the clothes she had on belonged to her "old man."—A Mrs Scanlan, called for the defendant, described her freak as "a little bit of joviality."
And I may answer with another question. Why is a two-headed calf? And my own answer to this is that it is a freak.
There may be good points about a freak reel, but because it is a freak it will stand little show of even a fair try-out
It is a freak that people talk about when they see it. Not everyone calls it by the right name, and few people know how it gets to be what it is. This freak is hail.
gloss: A person who is extremely abnormal in appearance, social behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity, or business practices; an oddball, a unique person, originally in a displeasing or alienating way.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
slang
examples: St. Bart’s was not particularly pleased either with Lake’s methods or with their results, but kept him on because it was fashionable to have at least one distinguished freak on the staff.
Gentrification often starts with the artists, revolutionaries, freaks, transfolks, and queers (what I would call my people) moving into poor neighborhoods inhabited by people of color.
gloss: A person who is extremely abnormal in appearance, social behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity, or business practices; an oddball, a unique person, originally in a displeasing or alienating way.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
slang
examples: When long-haired, outlandishly dressed, drug-using hippies pilgrimaged to Haight-Ashbury in the early 1960s, they were quickly dubbed freaks; the pejorative appellation was both obvious and intended. It was not long before freak had become practically synonymous with hippie. It seems, however, that with the acceptance of long hair, the appearance and popularity of some rather bizarre fashions, and the emphasis placed upon "doing one's own thing," freak is no longer burdened with all of its former derogatory associations. Instead […] the word is beginning to acquire a quality which is favorable, glamorous, and somehow even admirable.
gloss: A person who is extremely abnormal in appearance, social behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity, or business practices; an oddball, a unique person, originally in a displeasing or alienating way.
pos: noun
tags: derogatory
slang
examples: Smith and Sturges [June 1969] note in their study of the San Francisco drug scene that freak means "anyone addicted to drugs."
gloss: A person whose physique has grown far beyond the normal limits of muscular development; often a bodybuilder weighing more than 260 pounds (120 kg).
pos: noun
gloss: An enthusiast, or person who has an obsession with, or extreme knowledge of, something.
pos: noun
examples: Bob's a real video-game freak. He owns every games console of the last ten years.
Anyone […] who seems "hung up" on some idea, activity or interactional disposition, might be called a "freak."
Presently […] college students […] use freak to denote any kind of enthusiast.
gloss: A very sexually perverse individual.
pos: noun
tags: endearing
informal
sometimes
examples: She's a freak in the sheets!
These determined souls [foot fetishists] are but the latest in a long line of foot freaks who trace their kinky lineage to ancient China, particularly the Song dynasty, which ruled until the thirteenth century when some other dynasty took over.
gloss: A wild dance.
pos: noun
examples: Get your freak on.
gloss: A sudden change of mind.
pos: noun
tags: dated
examples: And then, with heart more hard than stone,
He pick'd my marrow from the bone.
To vex me more, he took a freak
To slit my tongue and make me speak:
But, that which wonderful appears,
I speak to eyes, and not to ears.
It would be a great comfort to Mr. Weston, as he grew older—and even Mr. Weston might be growing older ten years hence—to have his fireside enlivened by the sports and the nonsense, the freaks and the fancies of a child never banished from home;
gloss: A streak of colour; variegation.
pos: noun
tags: dated
gloss: To react extremely or irrationally, usually under distress or discomposure.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
slang
examples: When the owner found a bunch of beatniks in there, he freaked, but that was later.
But after one night turned into five days, I was freaking out. I missed him.
gloss: To be placed or place someone under the influence of a psychedelic drug, (especially) to experience reality withdrawal, or hallucinations (nightmarish), to behave irrational or unconventional due to drug use.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
slang
gloss: To streak; to variegate
pos: verb
tags: dated
transitive
examples: Freakt with many a mingled hue.
[…] in fine diaper of silver and mother-of-pearl freaking the intense azure; Now scurrying close overhead, wild ink-hued random racers that fling sheeted […]
gloss: Strange, weird, unexpected.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: a freak genius
freak accident
A freak goal gave Forest the lead when a clearance by keeper John Ruddy bounced off Nathan Tyson and flew in.
Sadness of some shape will now perhaps forever be associated with this satire which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival: its beautiful young star Charlbi Dean died in August of a freak infection.
Derived words: circus freak
clean freak
control freak
cyberfreak
defreak
demofreak
eagle freak
ecofreak
freakazoid
freakbeat
freakdom
freakend
freakery
freak flag
fly the freak flag
freak folk
freakful
freakhood
freakish
freakishly
freakjob
freaklitter
freako
freak-off
freak of nature
freak-out
freakout
freak show
freaksome
freak wave
freaky
get one's freak on
Jesus freak
neat freak
nonfreak
phreak
phreaking
speedfreak
superfreak
technofreak
tweak freak
Twitter freak
warfreak
freak off
freak out
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: чуда́к
roman: čudák
lang: Czech
word: podivín
lang: Czech
word: magor
lang: Czech
word: blázen
lang: Dutch
word: engerd
lang: Dutch
word: freak
lang: Esperanto
word: strangulo
lang: Esperanto
word: diviantulo
lang: French
word: original
lang: German
word: Freak
lang: German
word: Spinner
lang: Italian
word: fricchettone
lang: Macedonian
word: чу́дак
roman: čúdak
lang: Russian
word: чуда́к
roman: čudák
lang: Russian
word: фрик
roman: frik
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 人妖
roman: rényāo
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 怪物
roman: guàiwù
lang: Esperanto
word: strangulo
lang: Finnish
word: friikki
lang: Finnish
word: kummajainen
lang: Finnish
word: luonnonoikku
lang: French
word: monstre
lang: French
word: phénomène
lang: French
word: anormal
lang: Indonesian
word: miring
lang: Italian
word: abnorme
lang: Japanese
word: フリーク
roman: furīku
lang: Japanese
word: 変人
roman: henjin
lang: Korean
word: 괴물
roman: goemul
lang: Korean
word: 괴짜
roman: goejja
lang: Macedonian
word: изрод
roman: izrod
lang: Portuguese
word: aberração
lang: Russian
word: уро́д
roman: uród
lang: Russian
word: уро́дина
roman: uródina
lang: Russian
word: уро́дец
roman: uródec
lang: Russian
word: фрик
roman: frik
lang: Russian
word: монстр
roman: monstr
lang: Russian
word: чудо́вище
roman: čudóvišče
lang: Ukrainian
word: дива́к
roman: dyvák