Definition of "peculiar" []

• Unusual or eccentric; odd. (adjective)
• Distinct from all others. See Synonyms at strange. (adjective)
• Belonging distinctively or primarily to one person, group, or kind; special or unique: rights peculiar to the rich; a species peculiar to this area. (adjective)
• A privilege or property that is exclusively one's own. (noun)
• Chiefly British A church or parish under the jurisdiction of a diocese different from that in which it lies. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "House of Commons, and that where he found me before he might find me again; I having had no other object in view than that of expressing, by some peculiar act, the keen sense which I entertained of _peculiar_ injustice, and of endeavouring to bring such additional proofs of that injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was heard in my defence. ""
• "I use the term peculiar, as expressive of the disorganized manner in which I have been compelled to prosecute the work."
• "The Virginia Historical Society, which has been collecting since 1831, owns a surfeit of what it calls "peculiar, perplexing or even grotesque objects" that "provide insight into the hopes, fears, assumptions and practices of the past.""