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

(presum)

Don't make the decision yourself and presume too much.

With infinitive object: to be so presumptuous as (to do something) without proper authority or permission.

I wouldn't presume to tell him how to do his job.

To assume to be true (without proof); to take for granted, to suppose.

* 2011 , John Patterson, The Guardian , 5 Feb 2011:

If we presume that human cloning may one day become a mundane, everyday reality, then maybe it's time to start thinking more positively about our soon-to-arrive genetically engineered pseudo-siblings.

To be presumptuous; with (on), (upon), to take advantage (of), to take liberties (with).

* 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 75:

Piliso then vented his anger on us, accusing us of lying to him. He said we had presumed on his hospitality and the good name of the regent.