Veered

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To shift direction unexpectedly from a straight line or path while traveling or navigating through an area
2. Moved off course abruptly during movement or travel
3. Suddenly altered a moving path away from a straight line

Etymology: "Veered" is the past tense of "veer," and the verb's origin is a nautical one: sailors used it to describe letting out a rope or cable. The Middle Dutch "vieren" meant "to slacken," and English borrowed the term from that seafaring vocabulary. A ship that was "veering" was paying out line, so the sense of turning away from a course came from the ship's changing heading rather than from any idea of wandering. The word also reached English through Middle French "virer," meaning "to turn," which gave the verb its association with turning. The two sources blended, so the modern sense of changing direction carries both the sense of giving way and the sense of turning.

Synonyms: swerved, turned, diverted, changed, shifted

Antonyms: continued, remained, stayed