To wander from any line prescribed, or from a rule or duty; to depart from what is established by law, duty, custom, or the like; to deviate.
Book of Common Prayer
I swerve not from thy commandments.
Clarendon
They swerve from the strict letter of the law.
Atterbury
many who, through the contagion of evil example, swerve exceedingly from the rules of their holy religion
To bend; to incline.
Milton
The battle swerved.
To climb or move upward by winding or turning.
Dryden
The tree was high; / Yet nimbly up from bough to bough I swerved.
To turn aside or deviate to avoid impact.
of a projectile, to travel in a curved line
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A sudden movement out of a straight line, for example to avoid a collision.
1990, American Motorcyclist (volume 44, number 7, page 11)
The distinction between using a skill subconsciously and employing it in the full knowledge of what was happening made a dramatic difference. I could execute a swerve to avoid an obstacle in a fraction of the time it previously took.