swerve

verb

1. (archaic)To stray; to wander; to rove.

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

2. To go out of a straight line; to deflect.

   “with the slipping of the pommel , the point 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.

   “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; […]”

4. To bend; to incline; to give way.

   “The battle swerved.”

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

   “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

   “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”

8. To drive in the trajectory of another vehicle to stop it, to cut off.

   “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.”

9. (slang, transitive)To go out of one's way to avoid; to snub.

   “If I see that type o' muthafucka in the club I just swerve him.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A sudden movement out of a straight line, for example to avoid a collision.

   “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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A deviation from duty or custom.

   “[…] indubitable evidence of a swerve from the principle of the work.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Synonym of drift (“sideways movement imparted by spin bowler”).