steer clear

steer clear verb: to avoid; to dodge; to sidestep.

Verb

steer clear (third-person singular simple present steers clear, present participle steering clear, simple past and past participle steered clear)

(figuratively, intransitive, often) To avoid; to dodge; to sidestep.
- I always told Sir John to steer clear of too much journalizing.1835, James Fenimore Cooper, The Monikins, Introduction
- Foreign youth steer clear of the gymnasium; its rules are too severe.1880, Mark Twain, chapter 4, in A Tramp Abroad

But unless you are also philosophical and like to listen to a lot of dialogue—or, worse yet, read reams of subtitles—I think you'd be wise to steer clear.1964 January 28, Bosley Crowther, “Movie Review: The Seventh Juror (1962)”, in New York Times, retrieved 15 Jan 2014:
If you think you can steer clear of government surveillance by staying off-line, think again.2013, “Surveillance State: Three Ways You're Being Watched”, in BloombergBusinessweek Videos, retrieved 15 Jan 2014:

third-person singular present	steers clear
present participle	steering clear
past participle	steered clear
past	steered clear
alternative form	stay clear

What does steer clear mean?: Steer clear means to avoid; to dodge; to sidestep.
How do you use steer clear in a sentence?: But unless you are also philosophical and like to listen to a lot of dialogue—or, worse yet, read reams of subtitles—I think you'd be wise to steer clear.
What part of speech is steer clear?: Steer clear is a verb.
What is the past tense of steer clear?: The past tense of steer clear is steered clear.

Adapted from Wiktionary: steer clear (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “steer clear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/steer_clear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.