yaw: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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Word of the Day for Tuesday, June 29, 2010 yaw \YAW\, verb: 1. To move unsteadily; weave. 2. To deviate temporarily from a straight course, as a ship. 3. (Of a vehicle) to have a motion about the vertical axis. Test pilot Joseph A. Walker flew the X-15 an estimated 28 miles high Thursday, testing a new way to curb the rocket plane's tendency to yaw as it plunges back from the edge of space. -- "X-15 Flight Tests Tighter Yaw Control", Milwaukee Journal, 1962 Now to this hand, now to that, he yawed in his faltering flight, and still at every billow that he broke, he spasmodically sank in the sea, or sideways rolled towards the sky his one beating fin. -- Herman Melville, Moby Dick, or The Whale Yaw migrates to English from the Old Norse jaga, "to drive, chase." Read the full entry | See synonyms | Comment on today's word | Suggest tomorrow's word Yesterday's word | Previous words | Help
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