A form of brain-damage in those who program too much in the write-only computer language Perl.

In it's most basic form, a Perl programmer will use Perl to accomplish common tasks for which other more appropriate (and easier) tools already exist. In extreme cases, those suffering from Perl Syndrome will set their login shell to Perl, and replace system executables with their own Perl monstrosities.

When confronted with evidence that they have Perl syndrome, one afflicted will become upset, deny that there's anything wrong, and respond "TMTOWTDI" ("There's More Than One Way To Do It" - Perl's motto.)
Asked by a newbie how to log the output of syslog to another host (a common Unix task), someone with Perl Syndrome replied that the 'easiest' way would be to write a 'simple' 25-line Perl script that would open a TCP connection to the remote host, tail the appropriate logfile, and write them out (another 'simple' Perl script would of course need to be written to accept and process this TCP connection.)

To the sufferer of Perl Syndrome, this was all simpler and easier than just enabling 'remote host' in the syslog configuration.
by Karl S. May 28, 2008
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The intellectual leader of the Neo-Conservative movement. Puppetmaster of George W. Bush and fellow evilmongeror Paul Wolfowitz. If the Christian belief system is to be believed, Vegas has 5:3 odds this man is the anti-christ.
by McDiggy August 4, 2003
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Female masturbation, also jilling

Referenced in a book by Christopher Moore
"When I'm bored and lonely, I go home and flick the perl"
by anon-fo-sheezy March 21, 2008
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When someone insists on using perl in modern web sites because php is a fad.
Bill is such a perl clutcher he refuses to learn JavaScript.

Bill is perl clutching.
by SmashTheState May 31, 2023
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a polish twat which talks like he hit puberty at eight years old he also is a polish rapist who goes knoll academy, sevenoaks, kent
alan perl is polish
by George pig December 17, 2018
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“You can’t say the Perle, that’s offensive.”
by graceisironman October 11, 2023
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