Noun

(en noun)

An unbranded range animal.

* Around 1900 , O Henry,

Long Bill was a graduate of the camp and trail. Luck and thrift, a cool head, and a telescopic eye for mavericks had raised him from cowboy to be a cowman.

One who does not abide by rules.

One who creates or uses unconventional and/or controversial ideas or practices.

Florence Nightingale would have been perceived as a maverick during her early career, because she was prioritizing hygiene when everybody else involved in healthcare was focused on other things, such as surgery and pills.'' (Source: Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh, ''Trick or Treatment , 2008, p. 36-37.)

(poker slang) A queen and a jack as a starting hand in

Noun

(en noun)

A person considered alone, rather than as belonging to a group of people.

(legal) A single physical human being as a legal subject, as opposed to a legal person such as a corporation.

* 1982 , Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms :

Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination […].

An object, be it a thing or an agent, as contrasted to a class.

* {{quote-book, year=2006, chapter=Identity and Individuality in Quantum Theory, title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, author=Steven French citation

, passage=It is typically held that chairs, trees, rocks, people and many of the so-called ‘everyday’ objects we encounter can be regarded as individuals .}}

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katrina G. Claw

, title= Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In plants, the ability to recognize self from nonself plays an important role in fertilization, because self-fertilization will result in less diverse offspring than fertilization with pollen from another individual .}}

(lb) An element belonging to a population.