swerve
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /swɜːv/
ipa: /swɝv/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)v
Forms: form: swerves
form: swerving
form: swerved
form: swerved
form: 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”).
Senses: examples: text: A maid thitherward did run, / To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve.
ref: c. 1580 (date written), Philip Sidney, “The Fourth Booke”, in [Mary Sidney], editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia […] [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1593, →OCLC, folio 216, recto:
english: The New Arcadia
translation: The New Arcadia
glosses: To stray; to wander; to rove.
examples: text: with the slipping of the pommel , the point swerved
ref: c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Thirde Booke] Chapter 24”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 493, recto:
english: The New Arcadia
translation: The New Arcadia
glosses: To go out of a straight line; to deflect.
examples: text: I swerve not from thy commandments.
ref: 1785, The Book of Common Prayer According to the Use in King's Chapel:
text: They swerve from the strict letter of the law.
ref: (Can we date this quote?), Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641, Oxford: The Theater:
text: [T]here are many Perſons, who, through the Heat of their Luſts and Paſſions, through the Contagion of Ill Example, or too deep an Immerſion in the Affairs of Life, ſwerve exceedingly from the Rules of their Holy Faith; […]
ref: 1705 November 8 (Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Standing Revelation, the Best Means of Conviction. A Sermon Preach’d before Her Majesty, at St. James’s Chapel, on Sunday, October 28. 1705, being the Festival of St. Simon and St. Jude.”, in Fourteen Sermons Preach’d on Several Occasions. […], London: […] E. P. [Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1708, →OCLC, page 334:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: The battle swerved.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: To bend; to incline; to give way.
examples: text: The tree was high; / Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved.
ref: c. 1692, John Dryden, Amaryllis:
glosses: To climb or move upward by winding or turning.
glosses: To turn aside or deviate to avoid impact.
examples: text: 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
ref: 2011 January 8, Chris Bevan, “Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds”, in BBC:
glosses: Of a projectile, to travel in a curved line
examples: text: The French invaders, like an infuriated animal that has in its onslaught received a mortal wound, felt that they were perishing, but could not stop, any more than the Russian army, weaker by one half, could help swerving.
ref: 1869, Leo Tolstoy, War & Peace, Part 10, Chapter 39:
glosses: To drive in the trajectory of another vehicle to stop it, to cut off.
examples: text: If I see that type o' muthafucka in the club I just swerve him.
glosses: To go out of one's way to avoid; to snub.
Related terms: swarf