Dictionary

maverick en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• /ˈmævəɹɪk/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈmævəɹɪk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• măvʹər-ĭk (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Named after Texan lawyer and politician Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. For probable origin and meaning, see Maverick. The poker noun sense (“a queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em”) may be from the theme song of the US Western television series Maverick (1957–1962), which says of the eponymous protagonist that “[g]amblin’ is his game” and that he is “livin’ on jacks and queens”.

Meanings

1. (of cattle) Unbranded.
   • Attempts to regulate the distribution of maverick cattle throughout the 1880s affected particularly the access of cowboys to mavericks. 2016, Victoria Lamont, “Western Violence and the Limits of Sentimental Power”, in Westerns: A Women’s History, Lincoln, Neb.; London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 40:
   • Occasionally some young men who have no cattle of their own will take part in these expeditions, or they will give their services by the year to receive a pro rata of all the maverick cattle that may be found. [Quoted from The Texas New Yorker, pages 110–111.] 1875, “Investigating Commission of the Northern Frontier”, in Reports of the Committee of Investigation Sent in 1873 by the Mexican Government to the Frontier of Texas. […], New York, N.Y.: Baker & Godwin, printers, […], →OCLC, section V, pages 62–63:
   • But I would rather have maverick cattle, they are more accustomed to range conditions. My cattle from the registered herd have not done too well. 1963, Harry T. Getty, The San Carlos Indian Cattle Industry (Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona; no. 7), Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, →OCLC, page 65:
2. Showing independence in thoughts or actions.
   • As resident jester at the maverick journalism outlet The Free Press, Nellie Bowles scours the news for the absurd and hypocritical, and then skewers the best of the worst in her column, TGIF. 2025 February 26, Roy Rivenburg, “Nellie Bowles of The Free Press punctures pretension left and right”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 28 Apr 2026:
   • He made a maverick decision.  She is such a maverick person.
   • A maverick person tends to be wild, unsettled, and irresponsible, often an outlaw not bound by the rules and mores of society. 2003, Leon Claire Metz, “Maverick”, in The Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters, New York, N.Y.: Facts On File, →ISBN, page 170, column 2:
   • John Maynard Keynes, the internationally renowned economist, was impressed by Alan [Turing]'s work, and his unorthodox style. […] It is quite likely that Keynes viewed Alan and his maverick attitude to maths research sympathetically. 2013, Jim Eldridge, “The Thinking Machine”, in Alan Turing (Real Lives), London: A. & C. Black, →ISBN, page 17:

Forms

Translations (48)

tr başına buyruk (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · ru свободомы́слящий (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · cs nezapadající (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · hi गैर पारंपरिक (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · de individualistisch (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · cs nekonformní (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · bg вироглав (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · it brado (of cattle: unbranded) · de eigenwillig (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · mk индивидуа́лен (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · nl ongemerkt (of cattle: unbranded) · ka ინდივიდუალი (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · cs nepřizpůsobivý (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · cs podivínský (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · nl niet gebrandmerkt (of cattle: unbranded) · ru инакомы́слящий (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · sh својѐглав (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · pt rebelde (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · sh svojèglav (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · es disidente (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · es orejano (of cattle: unbranded) · mk свое́волен (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · sv vilde (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · ka ინდივიდუალური (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · fi merkitsemätön (of cattle: unbranded) · fi riippumaton (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · cmn 特立獨行 /特立独行 (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · fi itsenäinen (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · hu individualista (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · it individualista (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · ka დამოუკიდებელი (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · pt independente (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · ka თავისუფალი (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · es independiente (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · mk сво́еглав (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · sv enstöring (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · bg своенравен (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · et isemõtleja (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · tr bireyselci (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · nl eigenwijs (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · fr individualiste (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · es rebelde (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · cs individualistický (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · hu független (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · sv vagabond (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · et individualist (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · ro individualist (showing independence in thoughts or actions) · ca individualista (showing independence in thoughts or actions)

maverick en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• /ˈmævəɹɪk/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈmævəɹɪk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• măvʹər-ĭk (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Named after Texan lawyer and politician Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. For probable origin and meaning, see Maverick. The poker noun sense (“a queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em”) may be from the theme song of the US Western television series Maverick (1957–1962), which says of the eponymous protagonist that “[g]amblin’ is his game” and that he is “livin’ on jacks and queens”.

Meanings

1. An unbranded range animal.
   • In this distribution, care is taken to leave not only those which bear the owner's mark and brand, but his due proportion of the mavericks* that have been found upon the expedition. [footnote: *The term "maverick" is applied in this country to all animals that have neither mark nor brand upon them, and originated in this way:[…]] 1872, W. G. Kingsbury, “Cattle-raising in Western Texas. How It is Conducted—Profits of the Business, &c.”, in A Brief Description of Western Texas, […], San Antonio, Tx.: Herald Steam Job Printing House and Book Bindery, →OCLC, page 36:
   • 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. 1907, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “A Call Loan”, in Heart of the West, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company for Review of Reviews Co., →OCLC, page 241:
   • A maverick is an unbranded calf that has been weaned and shifts for itself. The maverick then belongs to the man who finds it and brands it. 1914 January, Zane Grey, The Light of Western Stars: A Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC, page 59:
   • Under this law 2,035 mavericks (orphan calves) were discovered and disposed of by the round-up foremen. Formerly the custom was to brand mavericks with the brand of the owner of that portion of the range where they were found. Under the new law, all mavericks are branded with the association brand, and sold at auction. 1884, The National Live-stock Journal, volume 1, Chicago, Ill.: George W. Rust & Co., →OCLC, page 55, column 3:
2. (broadly) Anything dishonestly obtained.
3. (broadly) One who is unconventional or does not abide by rules.
   • Among historians he was a maverick because of his belief that history is meaningless.
   • If representation and recruitment is an objective, self-styled mavericks like Kelly and his Queensland sidekick George Christensen have some utility. 2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, “Scott Morrison must heed the lesson of Donald Trump and slap down Craig Kelly”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2022:
   • As a voter, I’m a maverick, don’t belong to any party. I believe that John Doe is the best available man for county commissioner, Richard Roe for sheriff, Joe Hicks for governor—but John is a Democrat, Dick is a Republican, and Joe is—well, something else. 1924 May 3, Collier’s, volume 73, Springfield, Oh.: Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 38:
   • The relative merits of the civils and the demerits of the electricals were extolled in the following challenge: “To the A.I.E.E. [American Institute of Electrical Engineers], hereinafter referred to as the mavericks of the engineering profession.” 1926, “The Engineers’ Basketball Contest: Civils vs. Electricals”, in The Idaho Engineer, Boise, Ida.: Idaho Society of Professional Engineers, →OCLC, page 70:
4. (broadly) One who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices.
   • “He was, in reality, more of a celebrity and less of an economist,” recalled the 51-year-old, who described handpicking the maverick as his finance minister because of his international reputation and “extremely attractive” skills as a public orator. 2025 November 25, Helena Smith, “Former Greek PM Tsipras savages ‘celebrity’ ex-finance minister Varoufakis in memoir”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • We then drift back into our old habits, glorify efficiency, and smile knowingly at the mavericks within the faculty who want the administration to take democracy seriously. 1947, Norman Burns, The Administration of Higher Institutions under Changing Conditions (Institute for Administrative Officers of Higher Institutions; Proceedings), Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →OCLC, page 75:
   • 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. 2008, Simon Singh, Edzard Ernst, “How Do You Determine the Truth?”, in Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial, [London]: Transworld Publishers, →ISBN, pages 36–37:
5. A person in the military who became an officer by going to college while on active duty as an enlisted person.
   • They had been working for and with each other for a very long period and their tolerance for “mavericks” was very high, especially if these mavericks continued to get promoted. 2013, John T. Kuehn, “The Navy, Treaties, and Innovation”, in Agents of Innovation: The General Board and the Design of the Fleet that Defeated the Japanese Navy, Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 9:
6. (slang) A queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em.

Forms

Antonyms

traditionalist · formalist · dogmatist · stickler · pedant

Coordinates

outcast · strange person · foreigner

Hypernyms

person · anomaly

Relateds

rogue · resister · rebel · black sheep · march to the beat of a different drum · lone wolf · lone gunman · troublemaker · scoundrel · revolutionary · doer · reckless · loose cannon · cheeky

Synonyms

deviant · rebel · offbeat · free spirit · misfit · heteroclite · maverick · individualist · deviate · heteroclite · eccentric · lone gunman · nonconformist · individualist · nonconformist

Translations (72)

fr anticonformiste (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · it brado (unbranded range animal) · fi väärin saatu (anything dishonestly obtained) · ru неклеймённый телёнок (unbranded range animal) · fi toisinajattelija (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · mk дисиде́нт (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · it indipendente (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · ru вольноду́мец (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · fi akka ja jätkä (poker slang: a queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em) · de Tier ohne Brandzeichen (unbranded range animal) · cs podivín (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · cs nonkonformista (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · mk слободо́умник (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · es rebelde (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · mk индивидуали́ст (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · it anticonformista (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · ru индивидуали́ст (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · sv vagabond (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fr dissident (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · sv enstöring (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · cs volnomyšlenkář (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · fi merkitsemätön eläin (unbranded range animal) · it battitore libero (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · es cimarrón (unbranded range animal) · nl individualist (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · de Querkopf (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · ru диссиде́нт (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · de mutterloses Kalb (unbranded range animal) · ru диссиде́нтка (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · de Paradiesvogel (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · de Nonkonformist (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · pt inconformista (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · cs neoznačkovaný dobytek (unbranded range animal) · mk индивидуали́стка (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fr non-conformiste (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · es excéntrico (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · ru инакомы́слящий (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · de Paradiesvogel (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fi kapinallinen (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · it anticonformista (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · pt excêntrica (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · de Querkopf (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · de eigenwilliger Typ (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · fr franc-tireur (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · pt excêntrico (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · mk дисиде́нтка (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · fr franc-tireur (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · cs nepřizpůsobivý (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · de Individualist (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · pl wolny duch (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · ru нонконформи́стка (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · it cane sciolto (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · ru индивидуали́стка (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fi sooloilija (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · nl nonconformist (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · es disidente (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · pt dissidente (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · et isemõtleja individualist (unbranded range animal) · pl indywidualista (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fi sooloilija (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fi toisinajattelija (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · ru нонконформи́ст (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · cs nonkonformista (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · nl dwarsligger (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · km អ្នកឯកត្តនិយម (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · es independiente (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · nl nonconformist (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · de Nonkonformist (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fr excentrique (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · nl dissident (one who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices) · km អ្នកបដិលោមនិយម (one who is unconventional or does not abide by rules) · fi etana (person in the military who became an officer by going to college while on active duty as an enlisted person)

maverick en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• /ˈmævəɹɪk/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈmævəɹɪk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• măvʹər-ĭk (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Named after Texan lawyer and politician Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. For probable origin and meaning, see Maverick. The poker noun sense (“a queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em”) may be from the theme song of the US Western television series Maverick (1957–1962), which says of the eponymous protagonist that “[g]amblin’ is his game” and that he is “livin’ on jacks and queens”.

Meanings

1. (US) To take an unbranded range animal.
   • For the capricious and uncertain favor of this the only marriageable young lady in the district, all the susceptible and unattached cowboys (of which class the population almost wholly consisted) strove together eagerly and without ceasing, mavericking right and left everything they could lay their hands on, with a running brand L I L, until, when the tenderfoot she had all along been engaged to came out and married her, she brought him great herds of L I L cattle, with which they gayly set up a ranch beneath the noses of the forlorn celibate community. 1894 July, Alice MacGowan, “The Heraldry of the Plains”, in McClure’s Magazine, volume III, number 2, New York, N.Y.; London: S[amuel] S[idney] McClure, Limited, →OCLC, page 115:
   • The court permitted the State to prove, over defendant's objections, that Thedford met Noon Tucker and Calvery driving the yearling over to Bachelor's for delivery. Thedford inquired of Noon “if that [meaning the yearling] was one he had mavericked?” 1887, A. M. Jackson; A. M. Jackson, Jr., Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Appeals of Texas, Austin, Tx.: Hutchings Printing House, →OCLC, page 514:
2. (broadly) To seize without a legal claim.

Forms

Deriveds

maverickism · maverickish · maverick brand · mavericky · mavericker

Translations (4)

fi takavarikoida (to seize without a legal claim) · fi ottaa merkitsemätön eläin (to take an unbranded range animal) · nl opeisen (to seize without a legal claim) · nl toe-eigenen (to seize without a legal claim)