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veers 1 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of veer
1
as in deviates
to change one's course or direction at this point the river veers to the southwest before finally emptying into the Atlantic Ocean

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2
as in turns
to change the course or direction of (something) veered the ship abruptly to the right to avoid a collision

Synonyms & Similar Words
3
as in swerves
to depart abruptly from a straight line or course without warning the car veered to the left and into an oncoming truck

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

veers

2 of 2

noun

plural of veer
as in twists

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of veers
Verb
At this point, the movie veers off the rails a bit, culminating in a very bloody conclusion. — ABC News, 3 Sep. 2026 If my car ever veers off the road, this little tool does two things that can genuinely save lives. — Karen Leblanc, Travel + Leisure, 3 Sep. 2026 Most surprising, Just Us is marked by a lack of intellectual rigor that often veers close to bad faith. — Charles Finch, The Atlantic, 28 Aug. 2026 The performance is daringly weird, perverse and outlandish, seductively charming, and, for all the flamboyance, Curry never veers out of control, never takes it too far. — Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2026 The show then veers back to early work, photographic transparencies with magazine transfers made in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, and continues, gallery by gallery, oscillating between different periods of the artist’s nearly six-decade career. — Leah Ollman, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026 The twist comes when the action suddenly veers into science fiction, and Isabella begins quite literally to disappear. — The Week Uk, TheWeek, 20 Aug. 2026 That's exactly the mindset incident response leaders need when an incident veers off script from the playbook. — David Etue, Forbes.com, 7 Aug. 2026 Despite the abundance of berries, the fragrance never veers into the medicinal territory that cherry can sometimes take on. — Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 31 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for veers
  1. deviates
  2. turns
  3. swerves
  4. twists
  5. swings
  6. wanders
  7. bends
  8. diverts
Verb
  • The actual number of prime numbers deviates from the prediction.
    — Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Price upon request Louis Vuitton Pharrell’s autumn outing features several eye-catching knits, including this volcanic take on a Nordic yoke sweater, which deviates from more-traditional styles with an irregular, almost pixilated gradient pattern.
    — Jon Roth, Robb Report, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of deviates
Verb
  • That in turn feeds ‘The Ticker’, the basic on-screen representation of the score and ‘The Computer’, another programme that turns that raw information into the more intricate graphics that appear on the screen.
    — Nick Miller, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026
  • Teaching students to actively hunt for where logic breaks turns them from passive consumers into sharp, critical evaluators of AI systems.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of turns
Verb
  • Surveillance video obtained by ABC7 New York shows two men fighting in the street before gunshots ring out, and a vehicle swerves around the moped, appearing to flee the scene.
    — Rebecca White, New York Daily News, 23 Aug. 2026
  • The artist adopts a schizoid persona, with multiple voices flowing out of him, and swerves between lucid social criticism—about the history of slavery or of higher education—and total gibberish.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of swerves
Noun
  • They’ve been assembled for a brain-breaker of a misfired melodrama, at first darkly amusing, before plunging headlong into soap opera-style twists and a general sense of heavy depression that no one can shake.
    — Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 14 Sep. 2026
  • The beloved original delivered plenty of twists, thrills, and chills, courtesy of director Griffin Dunne and Alice Hoffman, who wrote the novels the 1998 and 2026 films are based on.
    — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of twists
Verb
  • Across the room, the discussion swings back to the band’s festival set.
    — Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, 10 Sep. 2026
  • The Slingshot surges forward as the tach swings toward redline, the exhaust emitting a guttural howl.
    — William Roberson, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2026
Definition of swings
Verb
  • In the book’s 16 central chapters, Roden wanders from central categories such as yogurt, egg dishes, breads and pickles, showing how the countries of this region prepare stunning variations of common foodstuffs.
    — Scott Hocker, TheWeek, 2 Sep. 2026
  • To be fair, some of the mess wanders into the house on its own.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of wanders
Noun
  • In bending experiments, the chip showed no performance degradation after thousands of bends around small cylinders.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 3 Sep. 2026
  • Whether air-dried or finished with a curling iron, adding bends and creases to an above-shoulder style gives it an airy finish.
    — Calin Van Paris, InStyle, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of bends
Verb
  • Instead, your body diverts its limited calories elsewhere, pushing hair follicles into a two- to four-month resting phase before hair eventually sheds.
    — Maggie Ryan, Flow Space, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Blocking one chokepoint diverts traffic to others, congesting alternatives.
    — Mark Leonard, Foreign Affairs, 18 Aug. 2026
Definition of diverts

Browse Nearby Words

veeringly
veers
vegan
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Cite this Entry

“Veers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/veers. Accessed 19 Sep. 2026.

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