veer

• (General Australian, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vɪə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /vɪ(ə)ɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(r)

Borrowed from Middle Dutch vieren (“to slacken”).

veer (third-person singular simple present veers, present participle veering, simple past and past participle veered)

1. (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.

Borrowed from Middle French virer.

veer (plural veers)

1. A turn or swerve; an instance of veering.

veer (third-person singular simple present veers, present participle veering, simple past and past participle veered)

1. (intransitive) To change direction or course suddenly; to swerve.

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

   • (Can we date this quote?), Dryden:

     And as he leads, the following navy veers.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Burke:

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

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎:

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

2. (intransitive, of the wind) To shift in a clockwise direction (if in the Northern Hemisphere, or in a counterclockwise direction if in the Southern Hemisphere).[1]
3. (intransitive, nautical, of the wind) To shift aft.[1]
4. (intransitive, nautical) To change direction into the wind; to wear ship.
5. (transitive) To turn.

• (of the wind, to shift clockwise): back
• (of the wind, to shift aft): haul forward

• Vere, ever

From Dutch veer.

veer (plural vere)

1. feather

From Old Norse vei, from Proto-Germanic *wai.

• IPA^(key): /veːˀər/, [ˈʋeːˀɐ]
• Rhymes: -eːˀər

veer

1. Plural of ve

From Old Norse vita.

• IPA^(key): [ˈveːɹ]

veer

1. (dialectal, Fjolde) to know

• “veer” in Anders Bjerrum and Marie Bjerrum (1974), Ordbog over Fjoldemålet, Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.

• IPA^(key): /veːr/, [vɪːr]

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːr

A contraction of veder, from Middle Dutch vedere, from Old Dutch fethara, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ ~ pth₂én- (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to fly”). The sense "spring" is derived from the ability of feathers to resume their shape when bent.

Cognate with Low German Fedder, German Feder, West Frisian fear, English feather, Danish fjer, Swedish fjäder.

• veder

veer f (plural veren, diminutive veertje n)

1. feather

   Synonym: pluim

2. spring (e.g. metallic helix which resists stress)

veer

1. first-person singular present indicative of veren
2. imperative of veren

From Middle Dutch vere, from Old Dutch feri, from Proto-Germanic *farją.

Cognate with German Fähre.

veer n (plural veren, diminutive veertje n)

1. ferry

• overzet
• pont, veerpont m, veerboot

• erve, ever, vere, vree

• vaaier (Gronings)

Ultimately cognate to German vier.

veer

1. four (4)

From Proto-Finnic *veeri.

veer (genitive veere, partitive veert)

1. edge

Ultimately cognate to German vier, English four.

veer

1. (in some dialects, including Low Prussian and Münsterländisch) four (4)

• Plautdietsch: veea

veer

1. Alternative form of veoir

From Latin vidēre, present active infinitive of videō, from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to know; see”).

• IPA^(key): /βeˈeɾ/

veer

1. to see
   • 13th century, Vindel manuscript, Martín Codax, Ai ondas que eu vim veer (facsimile)

     Ay ondas que eu uin ueer / ſe me ſaberedes dizer / por que tarda meu amigo sẽ mj

     Oh waves that I came to see / say unto me / Why my lover lingers thus away from me?

• Galician: ver
• Portuguese: ver

• vedär

From Old Norse viðra.

veer

1. let wind blow through something

• ver