Adjective

(en adjective)

Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations.

* {{quote-book

, year = 1967 , first = Barbara , last = Sleigh , authorlink = Barbara Sleigh , title = (Jessamy) , edition = 1993 , location = Sevenoaks, Kent , publisher=Bloomsbury , isbn = 0 340 19547 9 , page = 33 , url = , passage = ‘ “It would be most irregular' Grandpa!” says Miss Cecily frowning and tapping her foot. “Well, we’re a pretty ' irregular family so that’s neither here nor there,” says the old man, impish like. [...] ’ }}

Of a surface, rough.

Without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity.

*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)

, title= The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01-01, author=Paul Bartel, Ashli Moore

, volume=101, issue=1, page=47–48, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Avian Migration: The Ultimate Red-Eye Flight , passage=Many of these classic methods are still used, with some modern improvements. For example, with the aid of special microphones and automated sound detection software, ornithologists recently reported […] that pine siskins (Spinus pinus ) undergo an irregular , nomadic type of nocturnal migration.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample

, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}

Not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal.

Whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other).

Adjective

(en adjective)

Out of the ordinary; odd; curious; unusual.

The sky had a peculiar appearance before the storm.

It would be rather peculiar to see a kangaroo hopping down a city street.

* 1800 , , Volume 41, page 379,

I saw nothing peculiar in his conduct, and thought that his arrangement of the ballot box was perfect.

* 2001 , Jack Schaefer, Wendell Minor, Shane ,

"Wasn't it peculiar ," I heard mother say, "How he wouldn't talk about himself?"

"Peculiar ?" said father. "Well, yes, in a way."

"Everything about him is peculiar ." Mother sounded as if she was stirred up and interested. "I never saw a man quite like him before."

* 2008', Stephen Arnott, '''''Peculiar Proverbs: Weird Words of Wisdom from Around the World .

Common or usual for a certain place or circumstance; specific or particular.

Kangaroos are peculiar to Australia.

* 1855 , ,

This philosopher found his ideas especially in all that is practical,^[29] that is, which rests upon freedom, which in its turn ranks under cognitions that are the peculiar product of reason.

*

* 1895 , , XX: Anomalous Islands: Celebes,

But of late years extensive Tertiary deposits of Miocene age have been discovered, showing that it is not a mere congeries of volcanoes; it [Iceland] is connected with the British Islands and with Greenland by seas less than 500 fathoms deep; and it possesses a few mammalia, one of which is peculiar', and at least three ' peculiar species of birds.

(dated) One's own; belonging solely or especially to an individual; not shared or possessed by others.

* Bible, Titus ii. 14

And purify unto himself a peculiar people.

* Hooker

hymns that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself

(dated) Particular; individual; special; appropriate.

* Milton

while each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat

* Dryden

My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.