veer

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To 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.
2. 2

   A turn or swerve

   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.
3. 3

   To change direction or course suddenly

   To change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.

   • The car slid on the ice and veered out of control.
   • And as he leads, the following navy veers.
   • 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.
4. ›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To shift in a clockwise direction (if in the Northern Hemisphere, or in a…

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

   2. 5

      To shift aft.

   3. 6

      To change direction into the wind

      To change direction into the wind; to wear ship.

   4. 7

      To turn.

   5. 8

      A 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.
   6. 9

      A surname.

The neighborhood

• antonymbackantonym(s) of “of the wind, to shift clockwise”
• antonymhaul forwardantonym(s) of “of the wind, to shift aft”