Dē'vi-ā'tion, n.

n. [L. Lat. deviatio, Fr. déviation.] 1. The act of deviating; a wandering from one's course; variation from a common or prescribed path.

2Sense 2. The state of having deviated; an act of sin; error.

3Sense 3. (Com.) The voluntary departure of a ship, without necessity, from the regular and usual course of the specific voyage insured, thus releasing the underwriters from their responsibility.

Deviation of a falling body (Physics), that deviation from a strictly vertical line of descent which occurs in a body falling freely, in consequence of the rotation of the earth. — Deviation of the line of the vertical, the difference between the actual direction of a plumb-line and the direction it would have if the earth were a perfect ellipsoid and perfectly homogeneous, as from the attraction of a mountain, or irregularities in the earth's density.