swerve
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
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”).
Inflected forms:
form: swerves
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: swerving
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: swerved
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: swerved
pos: verb
tags: past
form: swarve
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: swerves
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: swarve
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: To stray; to wander; to rove.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: A maid thitherward did run, / To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve.
gloss: To go out of a straight line; to deflect.
pos: verb
examples: with the slipping of the pommel , the point swerved
gloss: 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.
pos: verb
examples: I swerve not from thy commandments.
They swerve from the strict letter of the law.
[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; […]
gloss: To bend; to incline; to give way.
pos: verb
examples: The battle swerved.
gloss: To climb or move upward by winding or turning.
pos: verb
examples: The tree was high; / Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved.
gloss: To turn aside or deviate to avoid impact.
pos: verb
gloss: Of a projectile, to travel in a curved line
pos: verb
examples: 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
gloss: To drive in the trajectory of another vehicle to stop it, to cut off.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
gloss: To go out of one's way to avoid; to snub.
pos: verb
tags: slang
transitive
examples: If I see that type o' muthafucka in the club I just swerve him.
gloss: A sudden movement out of a straight line, for example to avoid a collision.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: A deviation from duty or custom.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: […] indubitable evidence of a swerve from the principle of the work.
gloss: Synonym of drift (“sideways movement imparted by spin bowler”).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
Related words: swarf
Derived words: overswerve
swerveless
swerver
swervy
unswerved
body swerve
Translations: