Verb

(swerv)

To stray; to wander; to rove.

* Sir Philip Sidney

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

To go out of a straight line; to deflect.

* Sir Philip Sidney

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.

* Book of Common Prayer

I swerve not from thy commandments.

* Clarendon

They swerve from the strict letter of the law.

* Atterbury

many who, through the contagion of evil example, swerve exceedingly from the rules of their holy religion

To bend; to incline.

* Milton

The battle swerved .

To climb or move upward by winding or turning.

* Dryden

The tree was high; / Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved .

To turn aside or deviate to avoid impact.

of a projectile, to travel in a curved line

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=January 8 , author=Chris Bevan , title=Arsenal 1 - 1 Leeds , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=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}}

Verb

(en verb)

To make (something) deviate from its original path.

To deviate from its original path.

(figuratively) To avoid addressing (questions, criticism, etc.).

The Prime Minister deflected some increasingly pointed questions by claiming he had an appointment.

(figuratively) To divert (attention, etc.).

* 2013 , Luke Harding and Uki Goni, Argentina urges UK to hand back Falklands and 'end colonialism'' (in ''The Guardian , 3 January 2013)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/02/argentina-britain-hand-back-falklands]

Critics suggest that Fernández, an unashamed populist and nationalist, is seeking to deflect attention from social disharmony at home.