swerve

English

Alternative forms

• swarve

Etymology

From Middle English swerven, swarven, from Old English sweorfan (“to file; rub; polish; scour; turn aside”), from Proto-Germanic *swerbaną (“to rub off; wipe; mop”), from Proto-Indo-European *swerbʰ- (“to turn; wipe; sweep”). Cognate with West Frisian swerve (“to wander; roam; swerve”), Dutch zwerven (“to wander; stray; roam”), Low German swarven (“to swerve; wander; riot”), Swedish dialectal svärva (“to wipe”), Icelandic sverfa (“to file”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /swɜː(ɹ)v/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)v

Verb

swerve (third-person singular simple present swerves, present participle swerving, simple past and past participle swerved)

1. (archaic) To stray; to wander; to rove.
   • Sir Philip Sidney

     A maid thitherward did run, / To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve.

2. To go out of a straight line; to deflect.
   • Sir Philip Sidney

     The point [of the sword] swerved.

3. To wander from any line prescribed, or from a rule or duty; to depart from what is established by law, duty, custom, or the like; to deviate.
   • Book of Common Prayer

     I swerve not from thy commandments.

   • Clarendon

     They swerve from the strict letter of the law.

   • Atterbury

     many who, through the contagion of evil example, swerve exceedingly from the rules of their holy religion

4. To bend; to incline.
   • Milton

     The battle swerved.

5. To climb or move upward by winding or turning.
   • Dryden

     The tree was high; / Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved.

6. To turn aside or deviate to avoid impact.
7. of a projectile, to travel in a curved line
   • 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC^[1]:

     Snodgrass also saw a free-kick swerve just wide before Arsenal, with Walcott and Fabregas by now off the bench, turned their vastly superior possession into chances in the closing moments

Related terms

• swarf

Translations

to stray

• Polish: błądzić (pl) impf

• Russian: блужда́ть (ru) impf (bluždátʹ)

to go out of a straight line

• Georgian: გადახვევა (gadaxveva), გახვევა (gaxveva)
• Maori: tataha, perori

• Polish: zbaczać impf, zboczyć pf
• Russian: отклоня́ться (ru) impf (otklonjátʹsja), отклони́ться (ru) pf (otklonítʹsja), свора́чивать (ru) impf (svoráčivatʹ), сверну́ть (ru) pf (svernútʹ), повора́чивать (ru) impf (povoráčivatʹ), поверну́ть (ru) pf (povernútʹ)

to wander from a line, rule or duty

• Dutch: zwerven (nl)
• Maori: kotiti

• Russian: отходи́ть (ru) impf (otxodítʹ) (от правил), преступа́ть (ru) impf (prestupátʹ) (закон)

to bend

• Russian: сгиба́ться (ru) impf (sgibátʹsja), согну́ться (ru) pf (sognútʹsja)

to climb or move upward

to turn aside or deviate to avoid impact

• Maori: tataha
• Russian: уклоня́ться (ru) impf (uklonjátʹsja), уклони́ться (ru) pf (uklonítʹsja)

• Swedish: väja (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Ewe: ^{(please verify)} nye
• French: ^{(please verify)} faire une embardée

• German: ^{(please verify)} abschweifen

Noun

swerve (plural swerves)

1. A sudden movement out of a straight line, for example to avoid a collision.
   • 1990, American Motorcyclist (volume 44, number 7, page 11)

     The distinction between using a skill subconsciously and employing it in the full knowledge of what was happening made a dramatic difference. I could execute a swerve to avoid an obstacle in a fraction of the time it previously took.

Derived terms

• body swerve