veer

present singular third person veers · participle present veering · participle past veered · past veered

1. obsoletenauticalTo let out (a sail-line), to allow (a sheet) to run out.

   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.

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

plural veers

1. A turn or swerve; an instance of veering.

   […] there is always a sudden, though small rise in the barometer, and a sudden drop of temperature of several degrees, sometimes as much as ten or fifteen degrees; there is also a sudden veer in the wind direction.

   1917, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

present singular third person veers · participle present veering · participle past veered · past veered

1. intransitiveTo change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.

   The car slid on the ice and veered out of control.

   5 more examples

   And as he leads, the following navy veers.

   1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   We are in a war of a peculiar nature. It is not with an ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about.

   1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace

   In recent years, the attitude of the railway authorities towards large-scale visits to works and sheds on the whole, has, happily, veered round from suspicion, and even point-blank opposition, to one of co-operation and ready welcome.

   1951 April, R. S. McNaught, “Railway Enthusiasts”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 269

   At this time in 2008, even as the global economy veered toward collapse, optimism about Washington ran surprisingly high.

   2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times

   As he neared a bridge over the East Coast Main Line near Great Heck, he lost control. His Land Rover left the carriageway and veered onto the hard shoulder before biting into the grass verge. [page 39] It ran derailed for about 500 yards before encountering a set of points, which caused it to veer into the path of an Immingham-Ferrybridge coal train, powered by Freightliner 66521 (one of a class of locomotive well-known for being well-built enough to destroy anything that got in its way).

   2021 February 24, Greg Morse, “Great Heck: a tragic chain of events”, in RAIL, number 925, pages 38, 39

2. intransitiveTo shift in a clockwise direction (if in the Northern Hemisphere, or in a counterclockwise direction if in the Southern Hemisphere).

   1966, F. K. Hare, The Restless Atmosphere, 4th edition, Hutchinson University Library It is clear that when a front passes the observer, there must be a sudden shift in wind: in the northern hemisphere it will always veer, that is, shift in a clockwise sense.

3. intransitivenauticalTo shift aft.
4. intransitivenauticalTo change direction into the wind; to wear ship.
5. transitiveTo turn.

plural veers

1. CornwallA piglet or a heifer.

   But with us veers are little pigs; and in some parishes heifers are called veers too. So you see it is not such a noble name with us, that I was going to be startled at the idea of a veer eating up my grass.

   1868, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Belgravia, volume 5, page 490

1. A surname.