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Veer vs Avoid - What's the difference?

veer | avoid |

As verbs the difference between veer and avoid

is that 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 while avoid is to keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.

As a noun veer

is a turn or swerve; an instance of veering.

veer

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)
  • (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.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) virer.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A turn or swerve; an instance of veering.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.
  • The car slid on the ice and veered out of control.
  • * (rfdate), Dryden:
  • And as he leads, the following navy veers .
  • * (rfdate), Burke:
  • An ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation
  • , 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.
  • Antonyms
    * back * haul forward

    References

    Anagrams

    * ----

    avoid

    English

    Verb

  • To keep away from; to keep clear of; to endeavor not to meet; to shun; to abstain from.
  • :I try to avoid the company of gamblers.
  • *1526 , Bible , tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:
  • *:The devyllsayde unto hym: all these will I geve the, iff thou wilt faull doune and worship me. Then sayde Jesus unto hym. Avoyde Satan.
  • *Milton
  • *:What need a man forestall his date of grief, / And run to meet what he would most avoid ?
  • *Macaulay
  • *:He carefully avoided every act which could goad them into open hostility.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= England 1-0 Ukraine , passage=England could have met world and European champions Spain but that eventuality was avoided by Sweden's 2-0 win against France, and Rooney's first goal in a major tournament since scoring twice in the 4-2 victory over Croatia in Lisbon at Euro 2004.}}
  • (obsolete) To make empty; to clear.
  • :(Wyclif)
  • To make void, to annul; to refute (especially a contract).
  • *Spenser
  • *:How can these grants of the king's be avoided ?
  • (legal) To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter.
  • :(Blackstone)
  • (obsolete) To emit or throw out; to void; as, to avoid excretions.
  • :(Sir Thomas Browne)
  • (obsolete) To leave, evacuate; to leave as empty, to withdraw or come away from.
  • *:
  • *:Anone they encountred to gyders / and he with the reed shelde smote hym soo hard that he bare hym ouer to the erthe / There with anone came another Knyght of the castel / and he was smyten so sore that he auoyded his fadel
  • *Francis Bacon
  • *:Six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room.
  • (obsolete) To get rid of.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) To retire; to withdraw, depart, go away.
  • (obsolete) To become void or vacant.
  • Usage notes

    * This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) . See

    Derived terms

    * avoid like the plague