Swerve
Swerve , intransitive verb
[Old English swerven, Anglo-Saxon sweorfan to wipe off, to file, to polish; akin to OFries. swerva to creep, Dutch zwerven to swerve, to rope, Old Saxon swerban to wipe off, Middle High German swerben to be whirled, Old High German swerban to wipe off, Icelandic sverfa to file, Gothic swaírban (in comp.) to wipe, and perhaps to English swarm. Compare Swarm.]
1.
To stray; to wander; to rope. [Obsolete]
A maid thitherward did run,
To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve.
2.
To go out of a straight line; to deflect.
The point [of the sword] 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.
Many who, through the contagion of evil example, swerve exceedingly from the rules of their holy religion.
4.
To bend; to incline.
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.
Swerve , transitive verb
To turn aside. — Gauden