dē-flecto, xi, xum, 3, v. a. and n.
I Act., to bend downwards or aside, to turn aside or in another direction .
A Lit.: ramum olivae, Col. 5, 11, 14; cf.: palmitem, id. 4, 26, 3; Cat. 62, 51; Plin. 17, 23, 35, § 204: tela (Venus), Verg. A. 10, 331: amnis in alium cursum, Cic. Div. 1, 19 fin. : cursum ad Romanos. Liv. 10, 27: vultum ab aliqua re ad aliquid, Val. Max. 5, 10, 1: carinam quolibet, Luc. 5, 789; cf.: rapidum iter, id. 3, 337; novam viam, to turn off, construct in another direction , Liv. 39, 27 fin. —
B Trop.
1 In gen.: lumina, Ov. M. 7, 789; cf.: oculos a cura, Val. Fl. 8, 76: cum ipsos principes aliqua pravitas de via deflexit, Cic. Rep. 1, 44: aliquem ab institutis studiis, Quint. 10, 1, 91: ut declinet a proposito deflectatque sententiam, Cic. Or. 40: si ad verba rem deflectere velimus, id. Caecin. 18, 51: quaedam in senectute deflexit (for which, shortly before, mutavit), Cels. praef. 11: in ipsos factum deflectitur, Quint. 7, 2, 23: adversarios in suam utilitatem deflectere, id. 4, 1, 71; cf.: dotes puellae in pejus, Ov. R. Am. 325: tragoediam in obscenos risus, id. Tr. 2, 409: perniciosa consilia fortuna deflexit in melius, Sen. Ben. 6, 8, 1: virtutes in vitia, Suet. Dom. 3: se de curriculo petitionis, to withdraw , id. Mur. 22 fin. —
2 Esp. (late Lat.), gramm. t. t., to inflect, to vary the form of a word: non solet sic deflecti, August. in Psa. 140, 25.—
II Neutr., to turn off, turn aside .
A Lit.: vulgus militum deflectere viā, Tac. H. 2, 70; cf. without via, Suet. Aug. 93 fin. : in Tuscos, Plin. Ep. 4, 1, 3.—
B Trop. (freq., but almost exclusively in Cicero): deflexit jam aliquantulum de spatio curriculoque consuetudo majorum, Cic. Lael. 12; so, de via (consuetudo), id. Off. 2, 3, 9: de recta regione, id. Verr. 2, 5, 68, 176: a veritate, id. Rosc. Com. 16: oratio redeat illuc unde deflexit, id. Tusc. 5, 28, 80: a Domino, Vulg. Sirach 36, 28; 2, 7.