yaw

Meaning

Noun

1. The rotation of an aircraft, ship, or missile about its vertical axis so as to cause the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, ship, or missile to deviate from the flight line or heading in its horizontal plane.
2. The angle between the longitudinal axis of a projectile at any moment and the tangent to the trajectory in the corresponding point of flight of the projectile.
3. A vessel's motion rotating about the vertical axis, so the bow yaws from side to side; a characteristic of unsteadiness.
4. The extent of yawing; the rotation angle about the vertical axis.

Verb

1. To turn about the vertical axis while maintaining course.
2. To swerve off course to port or starboard.
3. To steer badly, zigzagging back and forth across the intended course of a boat; to go out of the line of course.
4. To rise in blisters, breaking in white froth, as cane juice in the clarifiers in sugar works.

Synonyms

swerve

gape

yawing

yawn

digress

deflect

change of direction

crab

🦀

deflection

deflexion

depart

deviate

differ

diversion

divert

drift

drop by

eschew

foam

frothily

heading

inclination

inflection

inflexion

lather

offset

poke into

sheer

shunt

spume

stray

sway

trend

turn

vary

call at

out in

aberrate

eccentric rotation

bend

break

call

call in

change of course

Pronounced as (IPA)

/jɔː/

Etymology

Unknown, first attested in the mid-16th century. Perhaps related to yar (“quick, agile”), or alternatively from Old Norse jaga (“to chase, drive, move back and forth”), from Middle Low German jagen (“to hunt, chase, pursue”), from Old Saxon *jagōn, from Proto-West Germanic *jagōn, from Proto-Germanic *jakkōną (“to hunt”).