See Also: swerve(medicine)
swerve(dictionary)
swerve(dictionary)
Swerve - Wrestling(gambling)

swerve (iou)



swerve verb & noun.
[Old English sweorfan = Old Frisian swerva creep, Middle Dutch swerven stray, Old High German swerban move quickly back and forth, Old Norse sverfa file, Gothic (af)swairban wipe (away).]
A. verb.
verb trans. File, scour. Only in OE.
verb intrans. Depart, leave. rare. OE-LME.
verb intrans. Turn aside; deviate from a direct course; glance. Also foll. by from, into, off, etc. OE.
E. L. Doctorow The car came past his house..and swerved into the telephone pole. L. Ellmann Fran had to swerve to avoid touching him.
b. Turn or bend in a specified direction, esp. abruptly. Also foll. by to. L16.
D. H. Lawrence The hills swerved inland, to meet the sheer..sides of dry mountains. P. Ackroyd The light, glancing through a bell-jar, swerved upwards.
c. Cricket & Baseball. (Of a ball) deflect in the air as a result of a spinning action on delivery; (of a bowler or pitcher) deliver a ball with this action. L19.
verb intrans. fig. Change one's opinion or course of action; abandon one cause etc. in favour of another (usu. foll. by from, to). Formerly also, desert or be disloyal to a person (foll. by from). LME.
P. Ackroyd I never swerved from my ideal.
b. Err or stray morally; transgress. L16-E17.
verb trans. Cause to turn aside or change direction. LME.
E. Albee He swerved the car, to avoid a porcupine.
verb intrans. Sway, reel, totter. Chiefly poet. L15-E19.
verb intrans. Rove, stray, wander. Now dial. M16.
verb intrans. = SWARM verb2. poet. Only in 17.
b. noun. The action or an act of swerving; a deviation or divergence from a course etc.; a swerving movement. M18.
R. S. Thomas His grass-green eye Missed neither swoop nor swerve of the hawk's wing.
swerveless adjective (literary) unswerving, unwavering M19.
swerver noun (a) a person who or thing which swerves, formerly spec., a transgressor; (b) Cricket & Baseball a swerving delivery; a bowler or pitcher who swerves: L16.