different between swerve vs wander

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 English wandren, wandrien, from Old English wandrian (“to wander, roam, fly around, hover; change; stray, err”), from Proto-Germanic *wandr?n? (“to wander”), from Proto-Indo-European *wend?- (“to turn, wind”), equivalent to wend +? -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Scots wander (“to wander”), German wandern (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Swedish vandra (“to wander, hike”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/
• (West Midlands, especially Birmingham) IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/, IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/
• Rhymes: -?nd?(?)
• Hyphenation: wan?der

Verb

wander (third-person singular simple present wanders, present participle wandering, simple past and past participle wandered)

1. (intransitive) To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.

   • They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins.

   • “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

   Synonyms: err, roam

2. (intransitive) To stray; stray from one's course; err.
   • Bible, Psalms cxix.10:

     O, let me not wander from thy commandments.

3. (intransitive) To commit adultery.

   Synonym: cheat

4. (intransitive) To go somewhere indirectly or at varying speeds; to move in a curved path.
5. (intransitive) Of the mind, to lose focus or clarity of argument or attention.

   Synonym: drift

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

wander (countable and uncountable, plural wanders)

1. (countable) The act or instance of wandering.

2. (uncountable) The situation where a value or signal etc. deviates from the correct or normal value.

   Hyponym: polar wander

   baseline wander in ECG signals

Translations

Anagrams

• Andrew, Darwen, Warden, drawne, warden, warned

German

Pronunciation

Verb

wander

1. inflection of wandern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative