Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1500-1600
Origin: Perhaps from Old English frician 'to dance'

freak

1 noun
     
Related topics: Biology
freak1 [countable]
1 informal someone who is extremely interested in a particular subject so that other people think they are strange or unusual:
2 someone who is considered to be very strange because of the way they look, behave, or think [= weirdo]:
These glasses make me look like a freak.
Women who studied engineering used to be considered freaks.
3

a control freak

MP someone who always wants to control situations and other people
4HB also freak of nature something in nature that is very unusual:
Due to some freak of nature, it snowed in June.
5 an unexpected and very unusual event:
By some freak of fate, he walked away from the crash completely unhurt.
April's sales figures were a freak.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
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