different between swerve vs spiral

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 Middle French spirale, from Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira, from Ancient Greek ?????? (speíra, “wreath, coil, twist”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?spa???l/
• Rhymes: -a???l

Noun

spiral (plural spirals)

1. (geometry) A curve that is the locus of a point that rotates about a fixed point while continuously increasing its distance from that point.
2. (informal) A helix.
3. A self-sustaining process with a lot of momentum involved, so it is difficult to accelerate or stop it at once.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

spiral (not comparable)

1. Helical, like a spiral

Translations

Verb

spiral (third-person singular simple present spirals, present participle (US) spiraling or (UK) spiralling, simple past and past participle (US) spiraled or (UK) spiralled)

1. (intransitive) To move along the path of a spiral or helix.

   The falling leaves spiralled down from the tree.

2. (transitive) To cause something to spiral.

   You need to learn how to spiral a ball.

3. (figuratively, intransitive) To increase continually.

   Her debts were spiralling out of control.

Translations

Further reading

• spiral on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• Aprils, Plairs, prials

Danish

Pronunciation

Noun

spiral c (singular definite spiralen, plural indefinite spiraler)

1. spiral

Declension

Further reading

• “spiral” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “spiral” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spi.?al/

Adjective

spiral (feminine singular spirale, masculine plural spiraux, feminine plural spirales)

1. spiral

Noun

spiral m (plural spiraux)

1. spiral

Further reading

• “spiral” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Northern Sami

Pronunciation

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

spiral

1. hip

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• Koponen, Eino; Ruppel, Klaas; Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002-2008) Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages?^[1], Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira

Noun

spiral m (definite singular spiralen, indefinite plural spiraler, definite plural spiralene)

1. a spiral, coil
2. a coil (contraceptive device)

Derived terms

• spiralfjær
• spiraltrapp

References

• “spiral” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Medieval Latin spiralis, from Latin spira

Noun

spiral m (definite singular spiralen, indefinite plural spiralar, definite plural spiralane)

1. a spiral, coil
2. a coil (contraceptive device)

Derived terms

• spiraltrapp

References

• “spiral” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romanian

Etymology

From French spiral

Adjective

spiral m or n (feminine singular spiral?, masculine plural spirali, feminine and neuter plural spirale)

1. spiral

Declension

Further reading

• spiral in DEX online - Dic?ionare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

spiral c

1. spiral

Declension