Also 8 swarve. [f. next.] An act of swerving, turning aside, or deviating from a course; in Cricket and Baseball: see SWERVE v. 7 b.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 310. If there be no such Swarve,… then that Dog that is nearest the Deer when he swarves … wins the Match.
1840. E. E. Napier, Scenes & Sports For. Lands, I. i. 13. I missed him with my first barrel, but from the swerve he gave after my second attempt … I was aware he was hit.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. xix. Every swerve of the carriage and every cry of the postilion.
1865. A. L. Gordon, Poems, Vis. Smoke, iv. On! on! to the cannon’s mouth they stride, With never a swerve nor a shy.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 16 Aug., 8/2. Hirst … has a peculiar ‘knack’ … of making the ball swerve in the air…. Yesterday the ‘swerve’ showed itself.
fig. 1871. Dora Greenwell, Colloquia Crucis, iii. 63. A warp and swerve in nature that seems to demand a mighty work of restoration.
