maverick

Meanings

Adjective

• Unbranded.
• Showing independence in thoughts or actions.

Noun

• An unbranded range animal.
• Anything dishonestly obtained.
• One who is unconventional or does not abide by rules.
• One who creates or uses controversial or unconventional ideas or practices.
• A person in the military who became an officer by going to college while on active duty as an enlisted person.
• A queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold 'em.

Verb

• To take an unbranded range animal.
• To seize without a legal claim.

Origin

• From the surname of Texas lawyer and politician Samuel Maverick (1803–1870), who refused to brand his cattle. See Maverick.
• Mr. Samuel Maverick was, incidentally, the grandfather of former congressman Maury Maverick, who coined the term gobbledygook.
• 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”.