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

(sidestepp)

To step to the side.

*1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, page 180:

*:I He sidestepped , and I went in.

To avoid or dodge.

:They sidestepped the issue.

*{{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Clive Lindsay , title=Kilmarnock 1 - 2 St Johnstone , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Kilmarnock ought to have taken the lead on the stroke of half-time when Hefferman set up Kroca and, although the defender neatly sidestepped his marker, he fired straight into the chest of Enckelman.}}