deviation

Thus, one needs deviation to discover what is truly "out there", to find some meaning in this crude, imperfect world that still evades the reach of oh so many. Of course, not many can take the same path, follow the same trail, or it too will become too normal for anything new to be found along it.

We each need our own deviations, and it is those deviations that make us different, each an individual. Indeed, one could say that that is the very definition of what it is to be human.

De`vi*a"tion (?), n. [LL. deviatio: cf. F. d'eviation.]

1.

The act of deviating; a wandering from the way; variation from the common way, from an established rule, etc.; departure, as from the right course or the path of duty.

2.

The state or result of having deviated; a transgression; an act of sin; an error; an offense.

2. Com.

The voluntary and unnecessary departure of a ship from, or delay in, the regular and usual course of the specific voyage insured, thus releasing the underwriters from their responsibility.

Deviation of a falling body Physics, that deviation from a strictly vertical line of descent which occurs in a body falling freely, in consequence of the rotation of the earth. -- Deviation of the compass, the angle which the needle of a ship's compass makes with the magnetic meridian by reason of the magnetism of the iron parts of the ship. -- Deviation of the line of the vertical, the difference between the actual direction of a plumb line and the direction it would have if the earth were a perfect ellipsoid and homogeneous, -- caused by the attraction of a mountain, or irregularities in the earth's density.

© Webster 1913.