/fɹiːk/
OriginFirst 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 frician (“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).
- Someone or something that is markedly unusual or unpredictable.
“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 hippie.
“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. ”
- A drug addict.
“Smith and Sturges [June 1969] note in their study of the San Francisco drug scene that freak means "anyone addicted to drugs."”
- A person whose physique has grown far beyond the normal limits of muscular development; often a bodybuilder weighing more than 260 pounds (120 kg).
- An enthusiast, or person who has an obsession with, or extreme knowledge of, something.
“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.”
- endearing, informal, sometimesA very sexually perverse individual.
“She's a freak in the sheets!”
- A wild dance.
- datedA sudden change of mind.
“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, a”
“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”
- datedA streak of colour; variegation.
- euphemistic, form-ofEuphemistic form of fuck (“smallest amount of concern or consideration”).
“So why am I grieving over someone who doesn't even give a freak about me? These vindictive ideas flowed through my head. A part of me wanted to carve my name into his little Saturn leather seats, but ”
“They hear you, not out in the car, but when you practically say it to their face, they could make things hard for you, just to get back at you. You never know.” “Hey, Flor, not for nothin', but I don'”
“Because I've seen the vampires up there, and they don't give a freak about anyone or anything. Tell me you are different." "I am trying to be. The urges are hard to overcome, but, I assure you, you're”
- A man, particularly a bold, strong, vigorous man.
- Scotland, UK, dialectalA fellow; a petulant young man.
- intransitive, slangTo react extremely or irrationally, usually under distress or discomposure.
“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.”
- ambitransitive, slangTo 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.
- dated, transitiveTo streak; to variegate
“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 […]”
- not-comparableStrange, weird, unexpected.
“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.”
Formsfreaks(plural) · freake(alternative) · freik(alternative) · freke(alternative) · frick(alternative) · freaks(present, singular, third-person) · freaking(participle, present) · freaked(participle, past) · freaked(past)