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Veer   Listen
verb
Veer  v. i.  (past & past part. veered; pres. part. veering)  To change direction; to turn; to shift; as, wind veers to the west or north. "His veering gait." "And as he leads, the following navy veers." "an ordinary community which is hostile or friendly as passion or as interest may veer about."
To veer and haul (Naut.), to vary the course or direction; said of the wind, which veers aft and hauls forward. The wind is also said to veer when it shifts with the sun.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Veer" Quotes from Famous Books



... the fugitive veer suddenly and dart in under the trees. Tom vented an exclamation of disappointment, for he knew the chances were easy for escape in the deep shadows of ...
— The High School Boys' Fishing Trip • H. Irving Hancock

... "Da Beza eine schoene Oration gethon, darinn er kurtz perstringiert alle strytigen Artikel, und als er letstlich kom uff den Artikel von der Gegenwirtikeit Christi im Sacrament, und under anderm gesagt das sige so veer von einander als der Himmel von der Erden, habend die Sorbonischen angfangen klopfen, ruetschen, brummlen, das nieman nuet mer moegen hoeren, dess die alte Koenigin uebel zufriden gsyn. Dessgleichen auch der Cardinal von Lutringen ...
— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

... Fenachrone vessel. However, the resistance of the air seriously affected the trajectory of many of the irregularly shaped smaller masses of metal, and all three men were kept busy flicking attractors right and left; capturing those strays which threatened to veer off into the streets or upon the buildings of the Kondalian capital city, and shifting from one piece to another so that none should fall freely. Two sister-ships of the Kondal appeared as if by magic in answer to Dunark's call, and their attractors aided greatly ...
— Skylark Three • Edward Elmer Smith

... other thoughts are like these sail Drifting the river's surface over; They veer about with every gale— The river keeps its ...
— The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems • Frances Fuller Victor

... not to veer: when votes are weighed, The numerous tongue approves him renegade Who cannot change his banner: he that can Sits crowned with wreaths of praise too pure to fade. Truth smiles applause on treason's poisonous plan: And Cleon is ...
— A Channel Passage and Other Poems - Taken from The Collected Poetical Works of Algernon Charles - Swinburne—Vol VI • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... or incongruous ones? P. Certainly; he will endeavour to rouse himself from a disagreeable reverie, as from the night-mare. And from this may be discovered the line of boundary between the Tragic and the Horrid: which line, however, will veer a little this way or that, according to the prevailing manners of the age or country, and the peculiar associations of ideas, or idiosyncracy of mind, of individuals. For instance, if an artist should represent the death ...
— The Botanic Garden. Part II. - Containing The Loves of the Plants. A Poem. - With Philosophical Notes. • Erasmus Darwin

... friends, unless I am mistaken, the wind has a slight tendency to veer a little more to the eastward, and we must not lose ...
— Five Weeks in a Balloon • Jules Verne

... Brabant of Louvain, Brussels, Bois le Due, and Antwerp, four great cities, without representation of nobility or clergy; Zeland, of one clerical person, the abbot of Middelburg, one noble, the Marquis of Veer and Vliessingen, and six chief cities; Utrecht, of three branches—the nobility, the clergy, and five cities. These, and other provinces, constituted in similar manner, were supposed to be actually present at the diet when assembled. ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... of which I have described in an early part of the work. The gales that chiefly prevail in this Strait begin at North-North-West, and gradually draw round by West to South-West, at which point they subside; but if the wind, before it has so much southing, veer again to the northward of west—or backs, as it is expressed—the gale will continue; but its duration may be told by the barometer, as it is seldom fine when it registers less than 29.95, and bad weather is certain if ...
— Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 • John Lort Stokes

... the fat old hypocrite was trimming her sails with hands hardened from long experience. Her embraces and gratitude were a veer in a new direction. In a measure I was to be held to account for the present situation; in a sense to be social sponsor for Mrs. Thomas Cressy. A homeless Harrie, disapproved of by family and friends, would not have made a desirable son-in-law, and I had been seized upon as the most available ...
— People Like That • Kate Langley Bosher

... desertion:—renegadoes, Even shuffling Southey, that incarnate lie,[jx] Would scarcely join again the "reformadoes,"[530] Whom he forsook to fill the Laureate's sty; And honest men from Iceland to Barbadoes, Whether in Caledon or Italy, Should not veer round with every breath, nor seize To pain, the moment when ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron

... to find a fluttering, fearful youngling, somewhat impressed with his graces and courage. This businesslike disposal of his case caused his active mind to change its tack, as soon as it sensed the veer of the wind. ...
— The Wilderness Trail • Frank Williams

... Saskatchewan every paddle-dip, every twist and turn of the supple canoes, revealed some new caprice of the river's moods. In places the current would be shallow and the canoes would lag. Then the paddlers must catch the veer of the flow or they would presently be out waist-deep shoving cargo and craft off sand bars. Again, as at Grand Rapids, where the banks were rock-faced and sheer, the canoes would run merrily in swift-flowing waters. No wonder the Indian ...
— The "Adventurers of England" on Hudson Bay - A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North (Volume 18 of the Chronicles of Canada) • Agnes C. (Agnes Christina) Laut

... last time, however, it made a mistake. The water seemed to veer to one side. In its eagerness to get a drink the animal took another step forward. At that moment the direction of the column changed again, and it tilted over toward ...
— Five Thousand Miles Underground • Roy Rockwood

... know, won't be able to stand this all the year round," said Roger. "By George, no! not with a wagon-load of Leliuses!" Then, with a sudden veer and a flush: "I say, French, do you know what sort of state the Fairmile marriage is in by now? I think that lady might ...
— Marriage a la mode • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... Spanish 'entremes', though not recognized as such in our dictionaries. 'Mandarin' and 'marmalade' are our only Portuguese words I can call to mind. A good many of our sea-terms are Dutch, as 'sloop', 'schooner', 'yacht', 'boom', 'skipper', 'tafferel', 'to smuggle'; 'to wear', in the sense of veer, as when we say 'to wear a ship'; 'skates', too, and 'stiver', are Dutch. Celtic things are for the most part designated among us by Celtic words; such as 'bard', 'kilt', 'clan', 'pibroch', 'plaid', 'reel'. Nor only such as ...
— English Past and Present • Richard Chenevix Trench

... husband, but convicted of a moral flaw which may (or may not) have rather diminished thereafter the turnover of the epicerie in the Rue de la Paix. One hopes that her punishment finished with her acquittal, and that the mood of the mob, as apt as a flying straw to veer for a zephyr as for a whirlwind, swung to her favour from mere revulsion on her escape from the scaffold. The one thing is as likely as the other. Didn't the heavy man of the fit-up show, eighteen months after his conviction for rape (the lapse ...
— She Stands Accused • Victor MacClure

... Grubersepp, who was a personage in the district, and had never before deigned to take much notice of Hansei, now called at the cottage and offered his advice on many questions. When on a Sunday the village doctor and the priest were seen to visit the cottage, opinion began to veer around once more in ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol. I • Various

... he was in the act of hurling it toward home, where Mullane had braced himself to receive the throw, and tag the oncoming runner out. Should Fred veer ever so little from a direct line throw he would pull the catcher aside, and thus give Clifford the opportunity he wanted to ...
— Jack Winters' Baseball Team - Or, The Rivals of the Diamond • Mark Overton

... poop Sir Oliver watched the Spaniard. He saw her veer a point or so to starboard, heading straight to intercept them, and he observed that although this manceuvre brought her fully a point nearer to the wind than the Swallow, yet, equipped as she was with half as much canvas again as Captain Leigh's ...
— The Sea-Hawk • Raphael Sabatini

... masses, which completely shut out the stranger from our sight. I thought that probably the Frenchmen would alter their course, but we stood steadily on, only keeping up a little to be well to windward of our port, in case the wind should veer round more to the north-west. Evening at length came. It grew darker and darker; and with heavy hearts we prisoners had to ...
— Will Weatherhelm - The Yarn of an Old Sailor • W.H.G. Kingston

... the great, yellowish blotched snake. He loitered, basked, his tongue played, his fangs showed, he came on, little by little. Oh, if he would only veer off! But he was determined. What an ugly, obstinate brute! What an abominable trick! And yonder, still ...
— Boys' Book of Frontier Fighters • Edwin L. Sabin

... invitation. So they drew up alongside and clambered in through the gunroom ports. As they rushed up on deck they were joined by the sailors with handspikes, and together they soon forced the soldiers to surrender. In the meanwhile Carver too was approaching, and hearing the shouts, tried to veer away. But Larrimore trained his guns on him and captured him and all his men. Coming on board he "stormed, tore his hair off and cursed," as well he might for he knew that he would soon be on the way to the ...
— Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 • Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker

... new-springing day Attemper'd, eager now to roam, and search Its limits round, forthwith I left the bank; Along the champain leisurely my way Pursuing, o'er the ground, that on all sides Delicious odour breathed. A pleasant air That intermitted never, never veer'd, Smote on my temples, gently as a wind Of softest influence, at which the sprays, Obedient all, lean'd trembling to that part Where first the holy mountain casts his shade, Yet were not so disordered, but that still Upon their ...
— Ravenna, A Study • Edward Hutton

... her love when you are gone, my liege, Witness these papers, there will not be wanting Those that will urge her injury—should her love— And I have known such women more than one— Veer to the counterpoint, and jealousy Hath in it an alchemic force to fuse Almost into one metal love and hate,— And she impress her wrongs upon her Council, And these again upon her Parliament— We are not loved here, and would be then ...
— Queen Mary and Harold • Alfred Lord Tennyson

... the hurricane: should he heave his ship to, upon moving the hurricane circle from the ship's place on the chart towards the N.E., he will be able to judge of the changes of the wind he is likely to experience: thus it will first veer to S.S.W., the barometer still falling; then to S.W., the barometer at a minimum—this marks the position of the most violent portion of the storm he may be in, and by keeping the barometer as high as he can by bearing ...
— The Hurricane Guide - Being An Attempt To Connect The Rotary Gale Or Revolving - Storm With Atmospheric Waves. • William Radcliff Birt

... mother, the dying calf made spasmodic efforts to swim that were futile and caused it to veer and wallow from ...
— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London

... coincidence bore the same name—Hero. From this position he at once opened fire from both broadsides. His next astern, the Annibal (b), brought up immediately ahead of him, but so close that the Heros had to veer cable and drop astern (a), which brought her on the beam of the Monmouth, 64[140] (m). The captain of the Annibal had thought the order for battle merely precautionary, and had not cleared for action. He was therefore taken unawares, and his ship did no service ...
— The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence • A. T. Mahan

... sighted must have wirelessed a warning, for it wasn't half an hour before we saw more smoke on the horizon, and this time the vessel flew the white ensign of the Royal Navy and carried guns. She didn't veer to the north or anywhere else, but bore down on us rapidly. I was just preparing to signal her, when a flame flashed from her bows, and an instant later the water in front of us was thrown high by the explosion of ...
— The Land That Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... any degree "the arbiter of his own destiny" is pure illusion. We are thrust forth into life, against our will. Against our will we are forced to leave it. We find ourselves, as has been said, "on a steep incline, where we can veer but little to the left or right"; whichever way we move we fall finally to the very bottom. The fires we kindle die away in coals; castles we build vanish before our eyes. The river sinks in the sands of the desert. The character we form by our efforts disintegrates ...
— The Philosophy of Despair • David Starr Jordan

... think you will meet with very many physicians who favor alcohol and its use. I believe the trend of the teaching in the Albany Medical College is that alcohol is not a food or stimulant."—DR. A. VANDER VEER, Albany, N. ...
— Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why - What Medical Writers Say • Martha M. Allen

... My well-remembered experience has convinced me that, in that corner of the ocean, once the wind has got to the northward of west (as it did on the 20th, taking the British fleet aback), appearances of westerly weather go for nothing, and that it is infinitely more likely to veer right round to the east than to shift back again. It was in those conditions that, at seven on the morning of the 21st, the signal for the fleet to bear up and steer east was made. Holding a clear ...
— The Mirror of the Sea • Joseph Conrad

... in a silent, contemplative mood when they sat in the rough easy-chairs on the porch in front of the office and looked up at the first rays of light on the splendid, rugged peak above. Dick's mind reverted to the lumberman's daughter, as does the needle veer to the magnet; and for a long time they sat there, until the fires of their cigars glowed like stars. The moon came up, and the cross was outlined, dimly, above them, and against the background of black, cast upon the somber, starlit ...
— The Plunderer • Roy Norton

... motion for impeachment was rejected (11th June), but a similar motion succeeded a fortnight later. Public opinion, however, soon began to veer round and pronounce the conduct of the Opposition rancorous. Melville's relative, Sir Charles Middleton, in a letter to Wilberforce, denounced it as sheer persecution, seeing that the nation had suffered no loss, and Melville had ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... "I cannot veer round all in a moment, even though I must confess that what you have said to me, has ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson

... great river which our men have christened Waterplaets, in 12 degrees Southern Latitude and 1601/4 degrees Longitude, to sail up the same river landinward, in which there is the less difficulty, since the river, being deep and wide, can be sailed up by the yacht, which can conveniently turn, veer and tack ...
— The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 • J. E. Heeres

... It is then buried in the earth, with its point turned in the direction the gang wishes to take on their approaching expedition. If the goddess desires to warn them that they will be unsuccessful, or that they have not chosen the right track, the Thugs believe that the point of the axe will veer round, and point to the better way. During an expedition, it is entrusted to the most prudent and exemplary Thug of the party: it is his care to hold it fast. If by any chance he should let it fall, consternation spreads through the gang: the goddess is thought to be offended; the enterprise ...
— Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Vol. I • Charles Mackay

... and the purple martins share (Loveliest of birds) possession of the place; They veer and dart cream-breasted round the fair Faces ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Jean Ingelow

... bore herself better than was to have been expected under the strain of the painful interview. She saw more clearly now how she had erred. She was undergoing an inward revolution that would make it impossible for her ever again to veer so far from the line of duty to her father, her family ...
— A Gentleman from Mississippi • Thomas A. Wise

... time," he said. "Never halloo for the prairie until you are clear of the forest. If the wind remains in its present quarter, we are fortunate. Should it happen to veer round to the eastward, and you see the rocks of Tierra del Fuego lashed by the choppy sea that can run even through a land-locked channel, you will be ready to open two bottles as a thanks-offering. Is this your first trip ...
— The Captain of the Kansas • Louis Tracy

... channel, nearly as wide as the former; and the greatest depth in it, reduced to low water as usual, was 8 fathoms. The water shoaled again suddenly on approaching the west side of the bay, and obliged us to veer round off; we then steered to pass within Aken's Island, intending to anchor in the West Bight behind it; but the depth not being sufficient for the ship at low water, we came to in 4 fathoms, muddy bottom, one mile from the shore ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders

... He walked eastward, keeping as well in to the house shadows as he could. He saw the man cross the wider traffic-way that ran north and south, look quickly up and down the deserted street and then, as he gained the shadow of the next house wall, veer close in to an iron paling. Then there was a movement which Trotter could not quite ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine

... there were "ifs" still—the sea did not become too boisterous, if the wind did not veer round to the east, if no accident happened to the boat or its machinery, the Henrietta might cross the three thousand miles from New York to Liverpool in the nine days, between the 12th and the 21st of December. It is true that, once arrived, the affair on board the Henrietta, added to that of the ...
— Around the World in 80 Days • Jules Verne

... canoe grew and grew, and they saw, as Willet had surmised, that it contained four paddles. It was evident too that they were on a quest, as the boat began to veer about, and the four Indians swept the lake ...
— The Lords of the Wild - A Story of the Old New York Border • Joseph A. Altsheler

... Radicalism abolished the exclusive garb of royalty, and ermine fell to four cents a pelt, advanced to twenty-five cents and has sold at one dollar. To-day, mink is the fashion, and the little mink is pursued; but to-morrow fashion will veer with the caprices of the wind. Some other fur will come into favor, and the little mink will have a chance to multiply as the ermine ...
— The Canadian Commonwealth • Agnes C. Laut

... initially friendly. This was a great satisfaction to Kingozi, though none knew better than he how any chance gust of influence or passion could veer the wind. Still it was something to start on; and something more or less unexpected and unhoped for. M'tela himself supplied the reason in the course of one of their ...
— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al

... to make to turn, to strike off on the side, strike a stone in an oblique direction, a term in curling, to hit the corner (Wagner). O.N. vikja, to turn, to veer, Sw. dial. vik, Sw. wika, Norse vikja, vika, to turn (causative). Dan. vige not ...
— Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch • George Tobias Flom

... "A little air let out to slow down ... or even just to veer close enough to lay hands on something! You launched me, Peters, ...
— Satellite System • Horace Brown Fyfe

... angrily to the picture on the wall: "Abominable picture, out of the house you shall go just as soon as the father comes home!"—"The father has arrived," Erik informs them; "From the cliff I saw his ship come in." All minds veer promptly from the subject which had been engrossing them, to this delightful one of the arrival. The girls are for running to the harbour upon the instant. Mary prevents them. "Stop! Stop! You shall remain quietly at home. The sailor-folk will be arriving with hollow stomachs. ...
— The Wagnerian Romances • Gertrude Hall

... subsequent occasions the sightseeing aircraft to the McMurdo area arrived in the general vicinity of Cape Hallett to find clear air further on and took the opportunity of visual meteorological conditions to veer laterally from the direct computer flight track from Cape Hallett by tracking to the west along the coast of Victoria Land and eventually down McMurdo Sound over the flat sea ice. Ross Island was thus left to the east while near the head of the Sound the aircraft would turn left in ...
— Judgments of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand on Proceedings to Review Aspects of the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Erebus Aircraft Disaster • Sir Owen Woodhouse, R. B. Cooke, Ivor L. M. Richardson, Duncan

... with a blow that shook the wind from his body. But as he lay there he knew better than to move. He lay there, scarcely daring to breathe, dreading that the rise and fall of his breast would betray his ruse, praying that his boat would veer about so his body would be in the shadow. For he knew the two waiting carbines were still ...
— Never-Fail Blake • Arthur Stringer

... Three Voyages of Barents, by Gerrit de Veer, translated by the Hakluyt Society (1876) from ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 - "Banks" to "Bassoon" • Various

... there be a probability of the landing party being attacked on a re-embarkation, the boats should be hauled off to their anchors, with a long scope of cable, having a stern-line to the beach, and a man in the boat to veer in, that the troops may be readily embarked. The officer left in charge of the boats should be careful to avoid being surprised; and, if circumstances admit, strengthen his position by cutting down trees and throwing up small breastworks a short ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... very general misgivings; and, now that the people had been led to think, there were some uncomfortable aspects to the question. Even that august dignitary the sexton was in a painful dilemma as to whether it would be best to assume an air of offended dignity, or veer with these eddying and varying currents until sure from what quarter the wind would finally blow. He had learned that it was Mrs. Arnot whom he had twice carelessly motioned with his thumb into a back seat, ...
— A Knight Of The Nineteenth Century • E. P. Roe

... the short black pier, As the last white signal's seen; The points run in, and the houses veer, And the great bluff stands between. So darkness swallows each far white speck On many a wharf and quay. The night comes down on a restless deck, — Grim cliffs — and — The ...
— An Anthology of Australian Verse • Bertram Stevens

... all experiments of this sort would have been in the last degree difficult and dangerous with any man. With the admiral they were simply impossible. His tendency to veer about from one subject to another; his habit of keeping his tongue perpetually going, so long as there was anybody, no matter whom, within reach of the sound of his voice; his comical want of all dignity and reserve with his servants, promised, in appearance, much, ...
— No Name • Wilkie Collins

... freedom, he imagined the filling of the sails and the rattle of the ropes, and how a fair wind would carry him as far as the cove of Cork before morning. The run from Cork to Liverpool would be slower, but the wind might veer a little, and in four-and-twenty hours the Welsh mountains would begin to show above the horizon. But he would not land anywhere on the Welsh coast. There was nothing to see in Wales but castles, and he was weary of castles, and longed ...
— The Lake • George Moore

... wanted would look selfish. Accordingly, he reseated himself, and so did Mr. Douce, and the conversation turned upon politics and news; but Mr. Douce, who seemed to regard all things with a commercial eye, contrived, Vargrave hardly knew how, to veer round from the change in the French ministry to the state of ...
— Alice, or The Mysteries, Book III • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... who was on deck in a moment, gave the order to put up the helm and veer ship, but before she could be got round she struck heavily. We sounded round her and found the water deep on the starboard side. But all our efforts proving useless, the order was given to lower the boats. We had five fit ...
— Peter Trawl - The Adventures of a Whaler • W. H. G. Kingston

... greater numbers wend their way downward to the sea. "And is it not pretty sport," wrote Captain John Smith, who was on this coast as early as 1614, "to pull up twopence, sixpence, and twelvepence, as fast as you can haul and veer a line?"—"And what sport doth yield a more pleasing content, and less hurt or charge, than angling with a hook, and crossing the sweet air from isle to isle, over the silent streams ...
— A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers • Henry David Thoreau

... days, I watched the ducks cunningly tack and veer and hold the middle of the pond, far from the sportsman; tricks which they will have less need to practise in Louisiana bayous. When compelled to rise they would sometimes circle round and round and over the pond at a considerable height, from which they could easily see to other ponds and the river, ...
— Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience • Henry David Thoreau

... work of Prince Henry the Navigator have made him the subject of many biographies. One of the earliest of these was G. de Veer, Prinz Heinrich und seine Zeit (1864). More detailed is R. H. Major, Life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1868, abbreviated edition, 1874). A number of other biographies were called forth by the interest in the five hundredth ...
— European Background Of American History - (Vol. I of The American Nation: A History) • Edward Potts Cheyney

... or forecast the workings of the drink-maddened mentality masked by that rat-like face, Lanyard waited with a hand covertly grasping the automatic in his pocket. There was no telling; at any moment that murderous mania might veer his way. And he was not content to die, not yet, not in any event by the hand of a decadent little ...
— The False Faces • Vance, Louis Joseph

... give her the benefit of the doubt. I'll trust her, until I've seen something to warrant distrust—bearing in mind, however, what you have just told me, and the possibility of my being mistaken. I reckon I can veer ...
— The Cab of the Sleeping Horse • John Reed Scott

... flowers in richly-colored dress Will bloom when warm winds from the south shall veer: And clustering roses in their gorgeousness Shall form a ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol IV, Issue VI, December 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various

... an inveteracy in the gale which had driven us down to this part that bore heavily upon our spirits. It was impossible to trim the ballast. We dared not veer so as to bring the ship on the other tack. And the slope of the decks, added to the fierce wild motions of the fabric, made our situation as unendurable as that of one who should be confined in a cask and sent rolling ...
— The Frozen Pirate • W. Clark Russell

... near a battery, the execution of which must have been noted on the Russian side, I had a fine chance of experiencing shrapnel bursting overhead. It was a queer sensation to peer through field glasses and see the Russian shells veer a few hundred feet to the right. I saw one strike a windmill, shattering the long arms and crumpling it over in a slow burning heap. Then we beat a retreat, further ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... eye is fixed: away, Away, thou heedless boy! prepare the spear; Now is thy time to perish, or display The skill that yet may check his mad career. With well-timed croupe the nimble coursers veer; On foams the bull, but not unscathed he goes; Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear: He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes: Dart follows dart; lance, lance; loud bellowings speak ...
— Childe Harold's Pilgrimage • Lord Byron

... on his son's being made Advocate-general, began to think of a wife for him; and fixed upon Mary Reigersberg, of one of the first families in Zealand, whose father had been Burgomaster of Veer: the marriage was solemnised in July, 1608. The greatest encomium of the new-married lady is, that she was worthy such a husband as Grotius. The most perfect harmony subsisted between them, and Grotius held her in the highest ...
— The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius • Jean Levesque de Burigny

... channel, head to sea, and moored with light kedge-anchors, ready for a start on the following day. Since the intensely cold weather of the previous week, her crew of negroes had expressed no further desire to spend a winter in Siberia, and, unless the wind should veer suddenly to the southward, we could see nothing to prevent her from getting safely out of the river. The wind for once proved favourable, and at 2 P.M. on the 12th of October the Palmetto shook out her long-furled courses and topsails, cut the cables of her ...
— Tent Life in Siberia • George Kennan

... a mist, a shape, I wist! And still it near'd and near'd; And, as if it dodg'd a water-sprite, It plung'd and tack'd and veer'd. ...
— Lyrical Ballads, With Other Poems, 1800, Vol. I. • William Wordsworth

... Moreton Bay to the Isaacs, I experienced, with but few exceptions, during the day, a cooling breeze from the north and north-east. The thunder-storms came principally from the south-west, west, and north-west; but generally showed an inclination to veer round to ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt

... satisfaction, happened to be partners. My good fortune attended me still, and in less than an hour we had got thirty shillings of their money, for as they lost they grew the keener, and doubled stakes every time. At last the inconstant goddess began to veer about, and we were very soon stripped of all our gains, and about forty shillings of our own money. This loss mortified me extremely, and had a visible effect on the muscles of Strap's face, which lengthened ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett

... runs the Point, from all I hear," he replied. "But as I told you first thing, that Point is al'lus a pesky place and a good place to veer from." ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis

... Port Desire, a boat going before to sound the depth of the channel, which was twelve and thirteen fathoms, so that they sailed in boldly, having a fair wind at N.E. After going in little more than a league, the wind began to veer about, and they cast anchor in twenty fathoms; but the ground, consisting entirely of slippery stones, and the wind now blowing strong at N.W. they drifted to the south shore, where both ships had nearly ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... firma. The Scheldt and the Meuse continually bring down mud, which is deposited in the arms of the sea, and, rising little by little, enlarges the islands, thus enclosing the towns and villages that were ports on the coast. Axel, Goes, Veer, Arnemuyden, and Middelburg were maritime towns, and are now inland cities. Hence the day will surely come in which the waters of the rivers will no longer pass between the islands of Zealand, and a network of railways will extend over the whole ...
— Holland, v. 1 (of 2) • Edmondo de Amicis

... Let him veer one iota from that procession and soon there will come rumbling up to the curb a big black Maria and off he's whisked away from his fellows. Let him but get into the wrong house or take the wrong overcoat or chuck the wrong person under the chin—Pff! Let him forget where the long procession ...
— Vignettes of San Francisco • Almira Bailey

... year or more older than I, and was, of course, respected as the heir to the Pennington lands, for it is strange how people's sympathies veer around on the side of the people who are in power. My father has told me many times how, when he was thought to be the prospective heir of Pennington, people could not make enough of him, while Richard Tresidder had but scant ...
— The Birthright • Joseph Hocking

... he goes a considerable distance in that direction, perhaps half a mile or more, and makes a second trial. This time the pebble may swing off at an angle in another direction. He follows up in the direction indicated for perhaps another half mile, when on a third trial the stone may veer around toward the starting point, and a fourth attempt may complete the circuit. Having thus arrived at the conclusion that the missing article is somewhere within a certain circumscribed area, he advances to the center of this space and marks out upon the ...
— Seventh Annual Report • Various

... least is what Van Galen's crabbed old Dutch seems to mean. 'Alsoo naer bij quam dat se couden toe schieter dragen, de elcken heer onder den windt, gaven so elck hare laghe dan vinjt d'eene sijde, dan veer van d'anden sijde, hielden alsdan met haer schepen voor den vindt tal dat se weer claer waren, dan wast alsvooren met cannoneren van de heele lagh en in sonderheijt op mijn onderhebbende schip vier gaven van meeninge masten aft stengen overboort ...
— Fighting Instructions, 1530-1816 - Publications Of The Navy Records Society Vol. XXIX. • Julian S. Corbett

... a pretty good possibility that the wind will veer around, sooner or later, and that the old tub won't be in sight when morning comes?" Allan remarked, as he ...
— The, Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island - or Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers • Herbert Carter

... dived down some wooded glens, and crossed some rock-strewn brooks, that called to his memory the brawling waters of his own rugged land,—so constantly, at all times and in all places, is the wanderer's mind prepared to veer homeward. ...
— Impressions of America - During the years 1833, 1834 and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Tyrone Power

... fare to some place, and, on replying L1, received the rejoinder, "I'll give you 15s?" He would think the man a joker of a very feeble description. Yet this may often be done in Western America. Even when there is no "war" the agents have a certain margin to veer and haul on in their commission, and will often knock off a little sooner than allow a rival line to get the passenger. Besides, it frequently happens that there may be a secret cutting of rates without an open war. My own ...
— A Tramp's Notebook • Morley Roberts

... Ice Wolf prowls, The winds they shift and veer, But calm I sleep, And faith I keep In the ...
— Fifty years & Other Poems • James Weldon Johnson

... the uneven way, the girls raced along the river bank. Sometimes the boat appeared to be coming close in shore, and again it would veer out. ...
— The Outdoor Girls in Florida - Or, Wintering in the Sunny South • Laura Lee Hope

... a moment looking at nothing in particular, he decided that the best thing to do was to veer around and have some more; in taking this step, however, there was some sort of error in the proceedings and he went down forward on his knees. A moment later the hind legs stumbled and fell, and he was all down; now he decided to take a rest. As the mother nosed ...
— The Wrong Woman • Charles D. Stewart

... should their teacher be? A man Among the flatterers in the court Was found, well-suited to the plan The tyrant had devised. Report Gave him a wisdom owned by few, And certainly to trim his sail, And veer his bark, none better knew, Before ...
— Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan • Toru Dutt

... is shot through at the cap—we must wear ship or 'twill go! Veer, Resolution, wear ship and man the larboard guns ... they are cool ... I must go tend my hurt—a curst on't! Wear ship and ...
— Martin Conisby's Vengeance • Jeffery Farnol

... a dexterous clever Man with his wits about him ever, One who has travelled the world to see; Always to shift, and to keep through all Close to the sunny side of the wall; Not like a pictured block to be, Standing always in one position; Nay but to veer, with expedition, And ever to catch the favouring breeze, This is the part of a shrewd tactician, This is to be a—THERAMENES! DIO. Truly an exquisite joke 'twould be, Him with a dancing girl to see, Lolling at ease on Milesian rugs; Me, like ...
— The Frogs • Aristophanes

... wigs to show the grey matter. Brains on their sleeve like the statue in Glasnevin. Believe he does some literary work for the Express with Gabriel Conroy. Wellread fellow. Myles Crawford began on the Independent. Funny the way those newspaper men veer about when they get wind of a new opening. Weathercocks. Hot and cold in the same breath. Wouldn't know which to believe. One story good till you hear the next. Go for one another baldheaded in the papers and then all blows over. Hail fellow ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... the latter swerved off, and for an instant his plane seemed beyond control. Whether this was due to a wound received by the aviator, or to a trick on his part was not disclosed to Tom. But the machine darted downward and seemed to be content to veer off for ...
— Air Service Boys in the Big Battle • Charles Amory Beach

... the burning island I shaped my course for two islands called Turtle Isles which lie north-east by east a little easterly, and distant about fifty leagues from the burning isle. I, fearing the wind might veer to the eastward of the north, steered 20 leagues north-east, then north-east by east. On the 28th we saw two small low islands called Luca Paros, to the north of us. At noon I accounted myself 20 leagues short ...
— A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland • William Dampier

... the broad tread of snow-shoes failed to save them. Then, too, the dogs floundered belly-deep, and the broad bottoms of the sleds alone saved the outfit from complete disaster. The increasing hardships left Steve without respite. It was only on the hill-tops, when the veer of the wind carried it to the northward, and, for a brief spell, Arctic conditions returned, that any measure of ...
— The Heart of Unaga • Ridgwell Cullum

... decides, what triumphs, is another body of electors altogether—a floating body too often swayed by their passions, by their prejudices; or, worse still, by their interests. These are our masters, and according as they veer from right to left, or from left to right, the Government of the country changes, and its history takes a new direction. Gentlemen, is it well that it should be so? Is it well that this country should be at the mercy of ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence

... here!—What's the matter? The wind has changed all of a sudden, or rather the breeze has ceased. The sails are flapping against the mast, and the pennons are not moving. Every man to his post," he shouted. "I fear the wind will veer suddenly before we have time to turn round, and blow harder than will be pleasant for us. Gray, go to the wheel. The rest of you mount the rigging, furl the sails, all, even the great topsail. Oh, here, you ...
— The Shipwreck - A Story for the Young • Joseph Spillman

... Saints!" cried Ramiro, "there's my weather-cock son again, fighting against us this time. Well, Weather-cock, this is your last veer," then he began to wade towards the promontory. "Charge," he cried, but not a man would advance within reach of that axe. They stood here and there in the water looking at it doubtfully, for although they were brave enough, there was ...
— Lysbeth - A Tale Of The Dutch • H. Rider Haggard

... this favourable report from a physician whose experience in this particular branch of practice gave great weight to his opinions, Thurlow began to veer round again to the Ministry. "Whatever object he might at one time have had in view," says Mr. Grenville, "he has now taken his determination of abiding by the present Government." Thurlow, in short, was exactly the man the King believed ...
— Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George the Third, Volume 2 (of 2) - From the Original Family Documents • The Duke of Buckingham

... years they hate him like hell-fire itself, this Otto von Bismarck. The Prussians hate him, the Austrians, the Bavarians, to say nothing of the intervening rabble; but our tyrant is strong enough, in the end, to win foreign wars, and then the haters veer about, almost in a night, come up on bended knees and kiss the hand that smites—that hand of Bismarck, at once the best-beloved and the most-hated hand of his time. What more pray do you ask of ...
— Blood and Iron - Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its - Founder, Bismarck • John Hubert Greusel

... and worse," our other self responded, "as when in the german the fair debutante sees the leader advancing toward her with a splendid and costly favor, only to have him veer abruptly off to bestow it on some fat elderling who is going to give the next ball. But Mr. Pulitzer, though he has these spare intimations of pity, has none of the sentiment which there is rather a swash of in the Potiphar Papers. It's the difference between the Mid-Victorian ...
— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells

... less than five seconds. I only had to veer my gun two inches. My hand was on the trigger, and with a perfect "bead" on his left shoulder—right where the old guide had said the night before was the spot to ...
— "Say Fellows—" - Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life's Big Issues • Wade C. Smith

... small islands, not even indicated on our chart, compelled us to veer to the southward during ...
— Left on Labrador - or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' • Charles Asbury Stephens

... at once the air was filled with a rush of mighty wings, which seemed about to overwhelm him. A rigid wing-tip buffeted him so sharply that he lost his hold on the ledge. With a yell of consternation, which caused his assailant to veer off, startled, he fell backwards, and plunged down straight ...
— Kings in Exile • Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

... shrines in Phrygian hood we stand, And chief to Juno, mindful of the seer, Burnt-offerings pay, as pious rites demand. This done, the sailyards to the wind we veer, And leave the Grecians and the land of fear. Lo, there Tarentum's harbour and the town, If fame be true, of Hercules, and here Lacinium's queen and Caulon's towers are known, And Scylaceum's ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil

... it's my honest conviction, That my breast is the chaos of all contradiction, Religious—deistic—now loyal and warm, Then a dagger-drawn democrat hot for reform; * * * * * Now moody and sad, now unthinking and gay, To all points of the compass I veer in a day." ...
— The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White - With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas • Henry Kirke White

... not make up his mind about Rickman, could not see what Lucia had always seen, what he too saw now, that positively luminous sincerity of his. He saw it even now reluctantly—though he could never veer round again to his absurd theory of Rickman's dishonesty. He would have liked, if he could, to regard him as a culpable bungler; but even this consoling view was closed to him by Lucia. It was plain from her account that Rickman's task had been beyond human power. Jewdwine, ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair

... stops—his eye is fixed—away— Away, thou heedless boy! prepare the spear: Now is thy time, to perish, or display The skill that yet may check his mad career! With well-timed croupe[91] the nimble coursers veer; On foams the Bull, but not unscathed he goes; Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear: He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes; Dart follows dart—lance, lance—loud ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 2 • George Gordon Byron

... plane. She was also lifted by each wave and hammered over the sand into shallower water, so that the drenched and buffeted lifeboatmen had to lift anchor and follow the drifting vessel in the lifeboat, and again drop anchor and veer down as before. All this time three powerful steam-tugs were waiting in deep water to help the vessel, but they dared not come into the surf ...
— Heroes of the Goodwin Sands • Thomas Stanley Treanor

... no doubt he betrayed the fact that Harris was taking his money with him into the hills. Then the two of them framed up the plan which has resulted in the death of one and the arrest of the other." During these exchanges the sympathies of the jurors seemed to veer from side to side. The theories propounded were so contradictory that opinions wavered with each sentence of evidence. But a new bolt was ready for ...
— The Homesteaders - A Novel of the Canadian West • Robert J. C. Stead

... all that beat about in Nature's range, Or veer or vanish; why should'st thou remain The only constant in a world of change, O yearning Thought! that liv'st but in the brain? Call to the Hours, that in the distance play, The faery people of the future day— Fond Thought! not one of all that shining swarm Will ...
— Poems of Coleridge • Coleridge, ed Arthur Symons

... time, they supposed to be long out of sight, as the boat appeared to be going rapidly through the water; this naturally led to a conjecture that a strong current set to the northward and eastward. The wind still continued to veer about, and at one time they thought that they must have passed the ship, but the night was too dark to enable them to discern anything clearly many ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly

... than Mahomet himself can do!— The word, which I have given, shall stand like fate; Not like the king's, that weather-cock of state. He stands so high, with so unfixed a mind, Two factions turn him with each blast of wind: But now, he shall not veer! my word is past; I'll take his heart by the roots, and ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Volume 4 (of 18) - Almanzor And Almahide, Marriage-a-la-Mode, The Assignation • John Dryden

... Roman oppressors. Armenia, was, in fact, too weak to stand alone, and was obliged to lean upon one or other of the two great empires upon her borders. Her people had no clear political foresight, and allowed themselves to veer and fluctuate between the two influences according as the feelings of the hour dictated. Rome had now angered them beyond their very limited powers of endurance, and they flew to Parthia for help, just as on other occasions we shall find them flying to Rome. Phraates ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 6. (of 7): Parthia • George Rawlinson

... his knowledge with pedantick ostentation; as when, in translating Virgil, he says, "tack to the larboard,"—and "veer starboard;" and talks, in another work, of "virtue spooning before the wind."—His vanity now ...
— Lives of the Poets, Vol. 1 • Samuel Johnson

... shown himself hostile and ready. But seeing Jacqueline's coolness he melted out of his somewhat theatrical bristling, lest her sarcasm veer toward himself. ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... hail the steamer next him," writes Capt. Porter, "and tell her captain to pass the word for the others to veer out all their riding-chains to the bitter end, and stand by to sheer clear of the burning iron-clad as she drifted down. I then sat down to the table, and said, 'Gentlemen, we will proceed to sign the capitulation.' I handed the ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 2 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot

... Dowsett. That will certainly be best; but I think it will be prudent, before we leave, to run out a kedge with forty or fifty fathoms of cable towards the middle of the stream, and then veer out the cable on her anchor so as to let her ride thirty fathoms or so farther out. We left six men sluicing her side and deck, but it certainly would be prudent to get her out a bit farther. Even here, the heat is as much as ...
— When London Burned • G. A. Henty

... fellow team-mates ... and that Frank, directly ahead, was doing herculean work at clearing the way for him. On the thirty yard stripe, Frank suddenly went down, blocking off another tackler as he fell ... and Mack was forced to veer toward the sidelines as he was left upon his own. He saw now that Dizzy Fox, Pomeroy's star backfield man, was bearing rapidly down on him. There was no escape ... he must try to straight-arm ... or else be forced ...
— Interference and Other Football Stories • Harold M. Sherman

... that wide, flat valley. A network of washes cut up the whole center of it, and they were all as dry as bleached bone. To cross these Slone had only to keep Wildfire's trail. And it was proof of Nagger's quality that he did not have to veer from ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Campfire Stories • Various

... ebb it was not done, But fiercely to the west did run; Which put us all in terrible fear, Because there was not room for to veer. The wind and weather increased sore, And drove ten sail of ...
— Poor Jack • Frederick Marryat

... Mr. Temple, "is a bad master, but a good servant. A great man will," as Burke says, "disdain to veer like the weathercock on the temple of fashion with every breath of wind. But may he not, my lord—say, for you know—may he not wisely take advantage of the gale, and direct this great power, so as to work the state-machinery to ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. VII - Patronage • Maria Edgeworth

... passed uninvestigated. He, with his worn battalion of four troops, had been detached from the main column three days previous with orders to follow the trail of a war-party of Sioux, and smite them hip and thigh if he could catch them in forty-eight hours; if not, to veer around for the valley and rejoin the column at its bivouac among the foot-hills. There they should rest and recuperate. The pursued Indians, fortunately, had turned southward and gone jogging leisurely away towards their ...
— Under Fire • Charles King

... raised a stone for a remembrance in the place where God spake to him, and anointed it with oil, calling the name of the place Bethel. He went thence and came in veer time unto the land that goeth to Ephrath, in which place Rachel bare a son. And the death drawing near, she named him Benoni, which is as much to say as the son of my sorrow. The father called him Benjamin, that is to say the son ...
— Bible Stories and Religious Classics • Philip P. Wells

... hit the truth, And I with grief can but admit Hot-blooded haste controls my youth, My idle fancies veer and flit From flower to flower, from tree to tree, And when the moment catches me Oh, love goes by, Away I fly, And leave my ...
— Georgian Poetry 1918-19 • Various



Words linked to "Veer" :   swerve, veering, back, trend, sheer, shift, slew, turn



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