Veer vs Alter - What's the difference?
veer | alter | Related terms |
(obsolete, nautical) To let out (a sail-line), to allow (a sheet) to run out.
*1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , volume 12:
*:As when a skilfull Marriner doth reed / A storme approching, that doth perill threat, / He will not bide the daunger of such dread, / But strikes his sayles, and vereth his mainsheat, / And lends vnto it leaue the emptie ayre to beat.
To change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.
* (rfdate), Dryden:
* (rfdate), Burke:
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times
, passage=At this time in 2008, even as the global economy veered toward collapse, optimism about Washington ran surprisingly high.}}
(of the wind) To shift in a clockwise direction (if in the Northern Hemisphere, or in a counterclockwise direction if in the Southern Hemisphere).Bowditch 2002
(intransitive, nautical, of the wind) To shift aft.
(nautical) To change direction into the wind; to ship.
To turn.
To change the form or structure of.
* Bible, Psalms lxxxix. 34
* Shakespeare
* Alexander Pope
To become different.
To tailor clothes to make them fit.
To castrate, neuter or spay (a dog or other animal).
(obsolete) To agitate; to affect mentally.
Veer is a related term of alter.
As a verb veer
is (obsolete|nautical) to let out (a sail-line), to allow (a sheet) to run out or veer can be to change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.As a noun veer
is a turn or swerve; an instance of veering.As an adjective alter is
.veer
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)Etymology 2
From (etyl) virer.Verb
(en verb)- The car slid on the ice and veered out of control.
- And as he leads, the following navy veers .
- An ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about.
citation
Antonyms
* back * haul forwardReferences
Anagrams
* ----alter
English
Alternative forms
* altre (obsolete)Verb
(en verb)- My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
- No power in Venice can alter a decree.
- It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
- (Milton)