Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Peter Mark Roget

refraction; flection†, flexion; sweep; deflection, deflexure†; declination. diversion, digression, depart from, aberration; divergence &c 291; zigzag; detour &c (circuit) 629; divagation. [Desultory motion] wandering &c v.; vagrancy, evagation†; bypaths and crooked ways; byroad. [Motion sideways, oblique motion] sidling &c v.; knight's move at chess. V. alter one's course, deviate, depart from, turn, trend; bend, curve &c 245; swerve, heel, bear off; gybe†, wear. intervert†; deflect; divert, divert from its course; put on a new scent, shift, shunt, draw aside, crook, warp. stray, straggle; sidle; diverge &c 291; tralineate†; digress, wander; wind, twist, meander; veer, tack; divagate; sidetrack; turn aside, turn a corner, turn away from; wheel, steer clear of; ramble, rove, drift; go astray, go adrift; yaw, dodge; step aside, ease off, make way for, shy. fly off at a tangent; glance off; wheel about, face about; turn to the right about, face to the right about; waddle &c (oscillate) 314; go out of one's way &c (perform a circuit) 629; lose one's way. Adj. deviating &c v.; aberrant, errant; excursive, discursive; devious, desultory, loose; rambling; stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag; crab-like. Adv. astray from, round about, wide of the mark; to the right about; all manner of ways; circuitously &c 629. obliquely, sideling, like the move of the knight on a chessboard.