Veer

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪə(r)

From Middle Dutch vieren ("to slacken").

Full definition of veer

Verb

1. (obsolete, nautical) To let out (a sail-line), to allow (a sheet) to run out.
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, volume 12: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.

From Middle French virer.

Noun

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

Verb

1. (intransitive) To change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.The car slid on the ice and veered out of control.
• unknown date, Dryden:And as he leads, the following navy veers.
• unknown date, Burke:An ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about.
• 2012, November 7, Matt Bai, Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, At this time in 2008, even as the global economy veered toward collapse, optimism about Washington ran surprisingly high.
2. (intransitive, of the wind) To shift in a clockwise direction (if in the Northern Hemisphere, or in a counterclockwise direction if in the Southern Hemisphere).Bowditch 2002
3. (intransitive, nautical, of the wind) To shift aft.
4. (intransitive, nautical) To change direction into the wind; to wear ship.
5. (transitive) To turn.

Antonyms

• (of the wind, to shift clockwise) back
• (of the wind, to shift aft) haul forward

Anagrams

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