English Explanatory Dictionary

skew

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position.
  2. To cause (a distribution) to be asymmetrical.
  3. To bias or distort in a particular direction.
  4. To hurl or throw.
  5. To move obliquely; to move sideways, to sidle; to lie obliquely.
  6. To jump back or sideways in fear or surprise; to shy, as a horse.
  7. To look at obliquely; to squint; hence, to look slightingly or suspiciously.
adj
  1. Neither parallel nor perpendicular to a certain line; askew.
  2. Of two lines in three-dimensional space: neither intersecting nor parallel.
  3. Of a distribution: asymmetrical about its mean.
adv
  1. Askew, obliquely; awry.
noun
  1. Something that has an oblique or slanted position.
  2. An oblique or sideways movement.
  3. A squint or sidelong glance.
  4. A kind of wooden vane or cowl in a chimney which revolves according to the direction of the wind and prevents smoking.
  5. A piece of rock lying in a slanting position and tapering upwards which overhangs a working-place in a mine and is liable to fall.
  6. A bias or distortion in a particular direction.
  7. A phenomenon in synchronous digital circuit systems (such as computers) in which the same sourced clock signal arrives at different components at different times.
  8. A state of asymmetry in a distribution; skewness.
noun
  1. A stone at the foot of the slope of a gable, the offset of a buttress, etc., cut with a sloping surface and with a check to receive the coping stones and retain them in place; a skew-corbel.
  2. The coping of a gable.
  3. One of the stones placed over the end of a gable, or forming the coping of a gable.
noun
  1. A thick drizzling rain or driving mist.

Pronunciation

/skjuː/ /skju/ En-us-skew.ogg

Word forms

skew skews skewing skewed skewer more skew skewest most skew

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English skeuen, skewe, skewen (“to run at an angle or obliquely; to escape”), from Old Northern French escuer [and other forms], variants of Old French eschuer, eschever, eschiver (“to escape, flee; to avoid”) (modern French esquiver (“to dodge (a blow), duck; to elude, evade; to slip away; to sidestep”)), from Frankish *skiuhan (“to dread; to avoid, shun”), from Proto-Germanic *skiuhijaną (“to frighten”). The English word is cognate with Catalan esquiu (“evasive, shy”), Danish skæv (“crooked, slanting; skew, wry”) (> Norwegian Bokmål skjev), Dutch scheef (“crooked, slanting”), Norwegian skeiv (“crooked, lopsided; oblique, slanting; distorted”), Saterland Frisian skeeuw (“aslant, slanting; oblique; awry”), and is a doublet of eschew. The adjective and adverb are probably derived from the verb and/or from askew, and the noun is derived from either the adjective or the verb.

Synonyms

bung cast chuck chunk cook dash dump feck fling jerk heave hield hoy huck hurl hurtle launch lob peck peg pick pitch precipitate project quoit shy slight skew sling thrill throw toss traject warp whang whip whop wing neither parallel nor perpendicular

Antonyms

unskew

Derived words

deskew nonskewed skewable skewed skewer skewing skewy unskew unskewed Skewb clock skew skew arch skewback skewbald skew bevel gear skew gear skew bridge skew chisel skewcrop skew curve skew factor skew field skew-gee skew-Hermitian skewjawed skewly skewon skew pivot-journal skew pulley skew rolling mill skew spur wheel skew surface skew symmetric skew-symmetric skew-symmetric determinant skew-symmetric matrix skew symmetry skew-symmetry skew-T log-P diagram skew wheel skew-whiff skew whiff skew whift skew-whift skew-wiff skew wiff skew wift skew-wift on the skew skew normal distribution skewness

Translations

Bulgarian: изкривявам Finnish: tehdä vinoksi Finnish: muotoilla vinoksi Finnish: vinouttaa French: incliner German: verfälschen Hungarian: ferdít Hungarian: elferdít Hungarian: dönt Hungarian: megdönt Hungarian: ferdén helyez el Serbo-Croatian: nakositi
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