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

(head)

(jink)

Verb

(en verb)

To make a quick evasive turn.

* 1786 , Robert Burns, "Address to the Devil", Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect volume I:

But faith! he'll turn a corner jinkin , / An' cheat you yet.

*{{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=January 5 , author=Jonathan Stevenson , title=Arsenal 0 - 0 Man City , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=As the Gunners attacked in unrelenting waves of red the opportunities started to fall their way, as the outstanding Wilshere fired at Hart and then Van Persie jinked into space only to see his arrow-like 18-yard left-foot rocket shot cannon back off the base of Hart's right-hand post. }}

To cause a vehicle to make a quick evasive turn.