yaw

1 of 2

noun

ˈyȯ 

1

: the action of yawing

especially : a side-to-side movement

2

: the extent of the movement in yawing

yaw

2 of 2

verb

yawed; yawing; yaws

intransitive verb

1

a

of a ship : to deviate erratically from a course (as when struck by a heavy sea)

especially : to move from side to side

b

of an airplane, spacecraft, or projectile : to turn by angular motion about the vertical axis

2

: alternate

restlessly yawing between apparent extremes

—Martin Kasindorf

Did you know?

In the heyday of large sailing ships, numerous nautical words appeared on the horizon. Yaw is one such word. Its origin isn't exactly known, but it began turning up in print in the 16th century, first as a noun (meaning "movement off course" or "side to side movement") and then as a verb. For centuries, it remained a sailing word—often alongside pitch ("to have the front end rise and fall")—with occasional extended use as a synonym of the verb alternate. When the era of airplane flight dawned, much of the vocabulary of sailing found new life in aeronautics, and "yawing" was no longer confined to the sea. Nowadays, yaw, pitch, and roll are just as likely to be used by pilots and rocket scientists to describe the motion of their crafts.

Synonyms

Verb

• break
• cut
• sheer
• swerve
• veer
• zag
• zig

Examples of yaw in a Sentence

Noun

Sensors measure the pitch and yaw of the plane.

The airplane's rudder is used to control yaw.

Verb

the ship yawed hard to the right when the rogue wave hit it broadside

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

What the pilots noticed during the Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight On May 25, the day of the flight, the captain who flew the plane noticed a previous yaw damper overcorrection was mentioned in the logbook before taking off. —Michael Salerno, The Arizona Republic, 10 July 2024

Modern aircraft often have yaw dampers, which are automatic control systems that use small rudder movements to actively suppress Dutch roll. —Michael Salerno, The Arizona Republic, 14 June 2024

Verb

Atlantis would be yawed 90 degrees to Columbia, pointing at three o'clock to the older orbiter's 12 o'clock, in order to keep their vertical stabilizers from striking. —Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica, 1 Feb. 2023

The plane yawed left and right, dipped and climbed to avoid the flocks, churning my stomach like a roller coaster. —Smithsonian Magazine, 10 July 2023

Word History

Etymology

Noun

origin unknown

First Known Use

Noun

1546, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1586, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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Kids Definition

yaw

verb

ˈyȯ

: to turn suddenly from a straight course : swerve, veer

heavy seas made the ship yaw

yaw noun

Medical Definition

yaw

noun

ˈyȯ 

: one of the lesions characteristic of yaws see mother yaw