skew

Meanings

Verb

• To form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position.
• To bias or distort in a particular direction.
• To hurl or throw.
• To move obliquely; to move sideways, to sidle; to lie obliquely.
• To jump back or sideways in fear or surprise; to shy, as a horse.
• To look at obliquely; to squint; hence, to look slightingly or suspiciously.

Adjective

• Neither parallel nor at right angles to a certain line; askew.
• Of two lines in three-dimensional space: neither intersecting nor parallel.
• Of a distribution: asymmetrical about its mean.

Adverb

• Askew, obliquely; awry.

Noun

• Something that has an oblique or slanted position.
• An oblique or sideways movement.
• A squint or sidelong glance.
• A kind of wooden vane or cowl in a chimney which revolves according to the direction of the wind and prevents smoking.
• 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.
• A bias or distortion in a particular direction.
• A phenomenon in synchronous digital circuit systems (such as computers) in which the same sourced clock signal arrives at different components at different times.
• A state of asymmetry in a distribution; skewness.
• 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.
• The coping of a gable.
• One of the stones placed over the end of a gable, or forming the coping of a gable.

Origin

• The verb is derived from Middle English skeuen, skewe, skewen, from Old Northern French escuer, variants of Old French eschuer, eschever, eschiver (modern French esquiver), from Frankish *skiuhan, from Proto-Germanic *skiuhijaną. The English word is cognate with Danish skæv, Dutch scheef, Norwegian skjev, Saterland Frisian skeeuw, and is a 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.
• From Middle English skeu, skew, from Anglo-Norman eschu, escuwe, eskeu, or Old Northern French eschieu, eskieu, eskiu, from Old French escu, escut, eschif (modern French écu), from Latin scūtum, from Proto-Indo-European *skewH- or *skey-.