veer, to

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea | 2006 | 700+ words | Copyright

veer, to.
1. To pay out a rope or cable in a ship. The word is most usually applied to a vessel's anchor cable. There are many occasions when it is necessary to veer the cable, as for example when mooring or unmooring, one of the two cables being veered while the other is shortened in. If a ship is lying to a single anchor and the weather deteriorates seriously, veering more cable frequently adds to its safety as, generally speaking, the greater the scope of the cable, the greater the security. Hawsers used in securing a ship to a buoy or alongside a quay are veered when they are paid out, but a sheet is never veered.

2. The wind when it changes direction in a clockwise direction is said to veer. A wind which veers is frequently a sign of settled weather in the northern hemisphere, of unsettled weather in the southern. See also marine meteorology.

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