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 leave.

*Shakespeare

*:He which hath no stomach to this fight, / Let him depart .

*2009 , George Monbiot, The Guardian , 7 September:

*:The government maintains that if its regulations are too stiff, British bankers will leave the country. It's true that they have been threatening to depart in droves, but the obvious answer is: "Sod off then."

To set out on a journey.

*:

*:And soo she receyued hym vpon suffysaunt seurte / so alle her hurtes were wel restored of al that she coude complayne / and thenne he departed vnto the Courte of kyne Arthur / and there openly the reed knyghte of the reed laundes putte hym in the mercy of syre Launcelot and syr Gawayne

To die.

*Bible, Luke ii. 29:

*:Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.

To deviate (from).

:His latest statements seemed to depart from party policy somewhat.

:to depart from a title or defence in legal pleading

*Madison

*:if the plan of the convention be found to depart from republican principles

To go away from; to leave.

*Bible, 1 Sam. iv. 2:

*:The glory is departed from Israel.

*2009 , The Guardian , Sport Blog, 9 September:

*:The build-up to Saturday's visit of Macedonia and this encounter with the Dutch could be construed as odd in the sense that there seemed a basic acceptance, inevitability even, that Burley would depart office in their immediate aftermath.

(obsolete) To divide up; to distribute, share.

*:

*:and so all the worlde seythe that betwyxte three knyghtes is departed clerely knyghthode, that is Sir Launcelot du Lake, Sir Trystrams de Lyones and Sir Lamerok de Galys—thes bere now the renowne.

(obsolete) To separate, part.

*:

Syr knyght[,] said the two squyers that were with her[,] yonder are two knyghtes that fyghte for thys lady, goo thyder and departe them.

:(Shakespeare)