[f. VEER v.2] The action or fact of changing course or direction.
a. Of the wind (or a vane), or in general use.
1611. Cotgr., Virement, a veering, whirling, wheeling.
1696. Whiston, Th. Earth, IV. (1722), 367. It will not now depend on the Season of the Year alone, but on the Veering of the Wind.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, XI. i. (Rtldg.), 393. Scipio … asked whether the veering of the wind in the political horizon might not blow me some good.
1853. Herschel, Pop. Lect. Sci., iv. § 31 (1873), 168. Nothing apparently can be more capricious than the shifting and veering of a weather-cock on a gusty day.
1860. Vaughan, in Merc. Mar. Mag., VII. 323. The direction and veering of the wind … gave him … warning.
b. Of a ship. Also in fig. context.
1682. Sir T. Browne, Chr. Mor., 2. Expect rough seas, flaws, and contrary blasts, and ’tis well if by many cross tacks and veerings you arrive at the port.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), s.v., It is evident, that veering as well as tacking is a necessary consequence of the same … principle.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 177/2. The disadvantage of veering is that … the ship is sometimes carried far to leeward.
1865. W. G. Palgrave, Arabia, II. 301. After some tacking and veering, we worked up to the entrance.
c. In figurative uses.
1716. Addison, Freeholder, No. 25, ¶ 7. A soveraign … that is prone to fall in with all the Turns and Veerings of the People.
1780. J. Brown, Lett. Toleration (1803), II. 216. After much sinful veering towards the abjured abominations of Popery, they … lamented their perfidy to God.
1861. Tulloch, Eng. Purit., i. 147. The strange and apparently inconsistent veerings in Cromwell’s own mind.
