Jackson custom deserializer for one field with polymorphic types

Jackson processes @JsonTypeInfo before choosing which Deserializer to use, probably because the choice of Deserializer could depend generally on the type. However, you can easily disable this on a per-field basis the same way you specify custom Deserializer – by annotating the field directly:

@JsonDeserialize(using = DefinitionDeserializer.class)
@JsonTypeInfo(use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NONE)
private Definition definition;