Also 6 wheave, 7 weive. [Continuation of ME. WEVE.]
1. intr. To move repeatedly from side to side; † to toss to and fro; to sway the body alternately to one side and the other; to pursue a devious course, thread one’s way amid obstructions.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. iv. 10. Whilest thus amidst the billowes beating of her Twixt life and death, long to and fro she weaued [rhymes bereaued, deceaued].
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 146. Their fantasticall gestures exceed all barbarisme, continually weauing with their bodies, and often iumping vp-right (as is the manner in dauncing).
1682. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 72/4. By and by I saw him weaving from one side of the Pulpit to t’other.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, VII. 700. Him who grinds The hurdy-gurdy, at the fiddle weaves, Rattles the salt-box [etc.].
1854. Miss A. E. Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Weaving, moving backward and forward in a chair when uneasy or in trouble. ‘You’re weaving your web of sorrow,’ is often said to any one so doing. A metaphor from the loom.
1884. ‘Mark Twain,’ Huck. Finn, xx. The preacher … begun in earnest too; and went weaving first to one side of the platform and then the other.
1897. Barrère & Leland, Dict. Slang, Weave (American), to work along from one side to the other…. A drunken man ‘weaves along.’
1898. Crockett, Standard Bearer, ii. 14. Twenty or thirty dragoons were urging their horses forward in pursuit, weaving this way and that among the soft lairy places.
b. spec. of a horse: To move the head, neck and body restlessly from side to side of the stall.
1831. Youatt, Horse, xix. 345.
1869. Fitzwygram, Horses & Stables, § 194. 121. As a general rule, horses do not weave, unless they are tied up.
2. trans. To move (the hand or something held by it) to and fro, up and down.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 404. Make the ointment to sinke wel into the flesh, by holding a hot broad barre ouer the place annointed, weauing your hand too and fro, vntil the ointment be entred into the skin. Ibid., 417. Hauing annointed all the raw places with this ointment, make it to sinke into the flesh, by holding and weauing vp and downe ouer it, a hot broad barre of yron.
3. To make a signal to (a ship or its occupants) by waving a flag or something used as a substitute. Also intr. with for.
1593. P. Nichols, Sir F. Drake Revived (1628), 27. He wheaued vs with his hat, and his long hanging sleeues to come a shoare.
1599. Dallam, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 41. The nexte daye … he came to the sea sid, and weaved for a boate.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 566. Then shaking a pike of fire in defiance of the enemie, and weauing them amaine, we bad them come aboord; and an Englishman in the gallie made answer, that they would come aboord presently.
1622. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1908), II. 33. Which when they perceaved, they weived us with naked swords.
1628. Digby, Voy. Mediterr. (Camden), 59. Although I shott towardes them and weaued them to follow me.
4. Pugilism. (trans. and intr.) To creep close into (one’s opponent) before delivering one’s blow; to step in feinting and try to approach close to one’s opponent in order to administer punishment. Also (? Obs.), to get (the adversary’s head) ‘in chancery.’
1818. Sporting Mag. (N. S.), II. 23. Spring held his opponent’s hand … to prevent being weaved. Ibid. Painter … endeavoured to weave his antagonist. Ibid., III. 133. Neither were expert hands at weaving, and Martin was thrown.
1820. P. Egan’s Boxiana (1829), III. 397. The strength and skill of Belasco enabled him to hold up his opponent, and weave on, till he got Sampson down on both his knees.
1832. P. Egan’s Bk. Sports, 26/2. In closing, Curtis captured his opponent’s ‘knowledge-box,’ and was endeavouring to weave it under his arms, but [etc.].
1921. Times, 29 June, 10/6. Defensively he [sc. Dempsey] is a much better boxer than one might easily suppose…. His body sways as he weaves in and out, making him a very elusive target and very difficult to land on with a hard punch.
