freak

noun

1. 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 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.”

2. A hippie.
3. 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."”

4. (derogatory, slang)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.

   “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.”

5. A person whose physique has grown far beyond the normal limits of muscular development; often a bodybuilder weighing more than 260 pounds (120 kg).
6. 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.”

7. (endearing, informal, sometimes)A very sexually perverse individual.

   “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.”

8. A wild dance.

   “Get your freak on.”

9. (dated)A 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, 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;”

10. (dated)A streak of colour; variegation.
11. (euphemistic, form-of)Euphemistic 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 I remembered they weren't leather.”

    “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't give a freak about them guys or[…]”

    “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 safe with me.”

12. A man, particularly a bold, strong, vigorous man.
13. (Scotland, UK, dialectal)A fellow; a petulant young man.

verb

1. (intransitive, slang)To 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.”

2. (ambitransitive, slang)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.
3. (dated, transitive)To 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 […]”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Strange, 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.”

   “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.”