SWERVING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Swerving

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verb

Swerve v. t. To turn aside.

Swerve v. i. (past & past part. swerved; pres. part. swerving)

To stray; to wander; to rope. (Obs.) "A maid thitherward did run, To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve."

To go out of a straight line; to deflect. "The point (of the sword) swerved."

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." "Many who, through the contagion of evil example, swerve exceedingly from the rules of their holy religion."

To bend; to incline. "The battle swerved."

To climb or move upward by winding or turning. "The tree was high; Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved."

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Etymology of 'Swerving'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Swerving" Quotes from Famous Books

... more as we rode at the solitude, where so few hours before there had been such a deafening roar. We plunged straight into the maze of narrow streets, and then suddenly, before we were aware of it, our mounts were swerving and snorting in mad terror! For corpses dotted the ground in ugly blotches, the corpses of men who had met death in a dozen different ways. Lying in exhausted attitudes, they covered the roadway as if they had been merely tired to death. It was awful, and I began to have a ...

— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale

... first it flits; Thence swerving, strikes at old Jaroslawitz; The which, accurst by slaughtering swords, ...

— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy

... this, and would doubtless, but for the earnest remonstrances of his wife, who ruled her husband's opinions better than she could govern his conduct, and who being a simple-hearted woman, with but one rule of faith and right, never thought of swerving from her fidelity to the exiled family, or of recognizing any other sovereign but King James; and though she acquiesced in the doctrine of obedience to the reigning power, no temptation, she thought, could induce her to acknowledge the Prince of Orange as rightful ...

— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray

... study and search after this great truth, so I would press you to a diligent improvement of it to yourselves and to others. To know truth for knowledge sake is short of a gracious disposition of soul; and to communicate truth out of a desire of praise and vain-glory for so doing is also a swerving from godly simplicity; but to improve what I know for the good of myself and others is true Christianity indeed. Now truths received may be improved with respect to myself and ...

— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... recourse to a ruse as well as open attack; but in matters of principle there can be no tactics, there is one straightforward course to follow, and that course must be found and followed without swerving to the end. ...

— Principles of Freedom • Terence J. MacSwiney

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