swerve
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Old English sweorfan, compare Dutch zwerven.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
swerve (third-person singular simple present swerves, present participle swerving, simple past and past participle swerved)
- To stray; to wander; to rove.
- Sir Philip Sidney
- A maid thitherward did run, / To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve.
- Sir Philip Sidney
- To go out of a straight line; to deflect.
- Sir Philip Sidney
- The point [of the sword] swerved.
- Sir Philip Sidney
- 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
- Book of Common Prayer
- To bend; to incline.
- Milton
- The battle swerved.
- Milton
- To climb or move upward by winding or turning.
- Dryden
- The tree was high; / Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved.
- Dryden
- To turn aside or deviate to avoid impact.
- of a projectile, to travel in a curved line
- 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, BBC:
- 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
- 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, BBC:
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
to stray
to go out of a straight line
|
to wander from a line, rule or duty
|
to climb or move upward
to turn aside or deviate to avoid impact
|
- 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 Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
|
