veer - What does it mean?

Verb

(en-verb)

(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.

Verb

(en-verb)

To change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.

The car slid on the ice and veered out of control.

* (rfdate), Dryden:

And as he leads, the following navy veers .

* (rfdate), Burke:

An ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about.

* {{quote-news|year=2012|date=November 7|author=Matt Bai|title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds|work=New York Times citation

|passage=At this time in 2008, even as the global economy veered toward collapse, optimism about Washington ran surprisingly high.}}

(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

(intransitive|nautical|of the wind) To shift aft.

(nautical) To change direction into the wind; to ship.

To turn.