Other forms: swerved, swerving, swerves
To swerve is to turn sharply to one side, all at once — the move you make to avoid hitting something. A car swerving round a fox in the road, a cyclist swerving into the gutter as a van door swings open.
The movement is sudden and unplanned, and that is what separates a swerve from a turn. It works without an object: the car swerved, the bus swerved across two lanes. There is a noun as well, one quick swerve, and a formal figurative use about principles — he never swerved from what he had promised. In sport a ball can swerve in the air, bending away from where the goalkeeper is standing. British slang stretches it further, so to swerve something is to dodge it: swerve the meeting, swerve the third pint.
1verbswerveTo turn suddenly to one side while moving, so as to avoid something.
“He swerved to miss a cat and clipped the mirror of a parked van.”
2verbmoveTo move away from a course of action or a principle you had set yourself.
“For thirty years she never swerved from the routine she had built.”
3nounmovementA sudden sideways movement.
“One swerve and the lorry was across the white line.”
4verbball(of a ball) to curve sideways through the air.
“The free kick swerved over the wall and into the corner.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Old English sweorfan had nothing to do with traffic: it meant to file, rub, scour or polish, and at the edge of its meaning, to turn aside. Behind it sits Proto-Germanic *swerbaną, to rub off or wipe, and a Proto-Indo-European root *swerbʰ- meaning to turn, wipe or sweep. Dutch kept the wandering half in zwerven, to roam. English kept the turn, and put it on the road.
Proto-Indo-European
*swerbʰ- — to turn; wipe; sweep
Proto-Germanic
*swerbaną — to rub off; wipe; mop
Old English
sweorfan — to file; rub; polish; scour; turn aside
Middle English
swerven
English, today
swerve
From Middle English swerven, swarven, from Old English sweorfan (“to file; rub; polish; scour; turn aside”), from Proto-Germanic swerbaną (“to rub off; wipe; mop”), from Proto-Indo-European swerbʰ- (“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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA