different between swerve vs deflect

English

Alternative forms

• swarve

Etymology

From Middle English swerven, swarven, from Old English sweorfan (“to file; rub; polish; scour; turn aside”), from Proto-Germanic *swerban? (“to rub off; wipe; mop”), from Proto-Indo-European *swerb?- (“to turn; wipe; sweep”). Cognate with West Frisian swerve (“to wander; roam; swerve”), Dutch zwerven (“to wander; stray; roam”), Low German swarven (“to swerve; wander; riot”), Swedish dialectal svärva (“to wipe”), Icelandic sverfa (“to file”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sw??(?)v/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sw?v/
• Rhymes: -??(r)v

Verb

swerve (third-person singular simple present swerves, present participle swerving, simple past and past participle swerved)

1. (archaic) To stray; to wander; to rove.

   • A maid thitherward did run, / To catch her sparrow which from her did swerve.

2. To go out of a straight line; to deflect.
3. 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.
   • 1785, The Book of Common Prayer According to the Use in King's Chapel

     I swerve not from thy commandments.

   • They swerve from the strict letter of the law.

   • October 28, 1705, Francis Atterbury, a sermon

     many who, through the contagion of evil example, swerve exceedingly from the rules of their holy Faith

4. To bend; to incline.
5. To climb or move upward by winding or turning.
   • c. 1692, John Dryden, Amaryllis

     The tree was high; / Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved.

6. To turn aside or deviate to avoid impact.
7. Of a projectile, to travel in a curved line
8. To drive in the trajectory of another vehicle to stop it, to cut off.
   • 1869, Leo Tolstoy, War & Peace, Part 10, Chapter 39:

     The French invaders, like an infuriated animal that has in its onslaught received a mortal wound, felt that they were perishing, but could not stop, any more than the Russian army, weaker by one half, could help swerving.

Related terms

• swarf

Translations

Noun

swerve (plural swerves)

1. A sudden movement out of a straight line, for example to avoid a collision.
   • 1990, American Motorcyclist (volume 44, number 7, page 11)

     The distinction between using a skill subconsciously and employing it in the full knowledge of what was happening made a dramatic difference. I could execute a swerve to avoid an obstacle in a fraction of the time it previously took.

2. A deviation from duty or custom.
   • 1874, William Edwin Boardman, Faith-work, Or the Labours of Dr. Cullis, in Boston (page 56)

     […] indubitable evidence of a swerve from the principle of the work.

Derived terms

• body swerve

Translations

Anagrams

• Wevers

Middle English

Verb

swerve

1. Alternative form of swerven

English

Etymology

From Latin deflecto, from de- + flecto (“to bend”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??fl?kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt

Verb

deflect (third-person singular simple present deflects, present participle deflecting, simple past and past participle deflected)

1. (transitive) To make (something) deviate from its original path.
2. (transitive, ball games) To touch the ball, often unwittingly, after a shot or a sharp pass, thereby making it unpredictable for the other players.
3. (intransitive) To deviate from its original path.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To avoid addressing (questions, criticism, etc.).

   Synonym: elude

   The Prime Minister deflected some increasingly pointed questions by claiming he had an appointment.

5. (transitive, figuratively) To divert (attention, etc.).
   • 2013, Luke Harding and Uki Goni, Argentina urges UK to hand back Falklands and 'end colonialism (in The Guardian, 3 January 2013)[1]

     Critics suggest that Fernández, an unashamed populist and nationalist, is seeking to deflect attention from social disharmony at home.

Derived terms

• deflector

Related terms

• deflection

Translations

Anagrams

• clefted