From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishperverseper‧verse /pəˈvɜːs $ pərˈvɜːrs/ adjective STRANGEbehaving in an unreasonable way, especially by deliberately doing the opposite of what people want you to do → bizarre He gets perverse satisfaction from embarrassing people. —perversely adverb Perversely, she was irritated by his kindness.
Examples from the Corpus
perverse• Accordingly, the initial reaction of the equity markets was utterly perverse.• His characters seem at first sight useless or even perverse.• The whole idea is too perverse.• These perverse effects are compounded by the heavy political price that has to be paid: the abandonment of monetary sovereignty.• Louise could be perverse, often for reasons unclear to him.• Sadistic people derive perverse pleasure from the suffering of others and may seek out situations in which they can inflict this.• a perverse policy• People in Minneapolis take a perverse pride in how cold their winters are.• But he didn't know that, and a perverse sense of devilry urged her to lead him on.• In a perverse way, the same is now true of modern capitalism.Origin perverse (1300-1400) Latin past participle of pervertere; → PERVERT1 