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Swirl vs Swerve - What's the difference?

swirl | swerve |

As verbs the difference between swirl and swerve

is that swirl is to twist or whirl, as an eddy while swerve is to stray; to wander; to rove.

As a noun swirl

is a whirling eddy.

swirl

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A whirling eddy.
  • A twist or coil of something.

    • Derived terms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ambitransitive) To twist or whirl, as an eddy.
    • I swirled my brush around in the paint.
  • * Charles Kingsley
    • The river swirled along.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The contest was a lot more even in the second half, as the wind swirled around the Stadium of Light, but it took Craig Gardner's superb block to prevent Young getting on the scoresheet.}}
  • To be arranged in a twist, spiral or whorl.
  • (figuratively) to circulate
  • * 2013 May 23, , " British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):
    • Mr. Cameron had a respite Thursday from the negative chatter swirling around him when he appeared outside 10 Downing Street to denounce the murder a day before of a British soldier on a London street.

    swerve

    English

    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}}

    Related terms

    * swarf