swerve
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
-
to turn or cause to turn aside, usually sharply or suddenly, from a course
-
(tr) to avoid (a person or event)
noun
Related Words
See deviate.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of swerve
1175–1225; Middle English swerven (v.); Old English sweorfan to rub, file; cognate with Dutch zwerven to rove, Old High German swerban, Old Norse sverfa to file, Gothic afswairban to wipe off
Explanation
The noun swerve means a sudden turn off your path. As a verb, it means to move off your original route, possibly to avoid a collision. You can swerve either toward something or away from it. The word swerve can be traced to the Old English sweorfan, "to turn aside," which is precisely the modern sense. It was first used as a verb in the 13th century and as a noun in the 18th. Swerve refers to a sudden veering off, perhaps not as sharp as a turn, but more a bending of your path. Think of the trajectory as an arc or curve, and remember that swerve rhymes with curve.
Vocabulary lists containing swerve
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Walk Two Moons
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Bridge to Terabithia
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
You can even reduce the sugar or use alternative sweeteners like Swerve.
From Salon • Oct. 17, 2022
Swerve in Midtown: Teams of cyclists compete with a real-time leader board.
From New York Times • Nov. 17, 2016
Swerve too far in the other direction, and we lose our capacity for adaptive learning; the blooming, buzzing confusions of childhood—its naïve, unshorn circuits—are retained.
From The New Yorker • Mar. 28, 2016
History book club A discussion of Stephen Greenblatt’s “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern .” 7 p.m.
From Washington Post • Dec. 29, 2014
Swerve out from under these devils as fast as you can!
From Around the World in Ten Days by Fraser, Chelsea Curtis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
