skew

[skyoo] /skyu/

verb (used without object)

to turn aside or swerve; take an oblique course.

to look obliquely; squint.

verb (used with object)

to give an oblique direction to; shape, form, or cut obliquely.

Slang. to make conform to a specific concept, attitude, or planned result; slant:

The television show is skewed to the young teenager.

to distort; depict unfairly.

adjective

having an oblique direction or position; slanting.

having a part that deviates from a straight line, right angle, etc.:

skew gearing.

Mathematics. (of a dyad or dyadic) equal to the negative of its conjugate.

(of an arch, bridge, etc.) having the centerline of its opening forming an oblique angle with the direction in which its spanning structure is built.

10.

Statistics. (of a distribution) having skewness.

noun

11.

an oblique movement, direction, or position.

12.

Also called skew chisel. a wood chisel having a cutting edge set obliquely.

Origin

1350-1400; (v.) Middle English skewen to slip away, swerve < Middle Dutch schuwen to get out of the way, shun, derivative of schu (Dutch schuw) shy¹; (adj.) derivative of the v. (probably influenced by askew); (noun) derivative of the v. and adj.

Related forms

unskewed, adjective

Can be confused

skew, skewer.

Examples from the web for skew

Along the way subtle influences can skew the decision.
Faculty critics said that approach would anger students and skew the data.
Countries that import many intermediate goods for processing and re-export skew the percentages.
Convictions for terrorism financing skew the trend line upwards.
Most skew toward buttery, chocolaty flavors that can grow dull day after day.
The appointment of a former police officer as drugs tsar might skew the balance even further.
Not only do they skew younger, but they behave differently, too.
Defying the law would allow the political slant of the executive branch to skew the count.
Nonetheless, too sharp a focus on climate change could skew priorities.
The findings build on previous research showing that experiencing trauma can skew one's politics to the right.

British Dictionary definitions for skew

skew

/skjuː/

adjective

placed in or turning into an oblique position or course

(machinery) having a component that is at an angle to the main axis of an assembly or is in some other way asymmetrical: a skew bevel gear

(maths)

composed of or being elements that are neither parallel nor intersecting as, for example, two lines not lying in the same plane in a three-dimensional space
(of a curve) not lying in a plane

(of a statistical distribution) not having equal probabilities above and below the mean; non-normal

distorted or biased

noun

an oblique, slanting, or indirect course or position

(psychol) the system of relationships in a family in which one parent is extremely dominating while the other parent tends to be meekly compliant

verb

to take or cause to take an oblique course or direction

(intransitive) to look sideways; squint

10.

(transitive) to place at an angle

11.

(transitive) to distort or bias

Word Origin

C14: from Old Norman French escuer to shun, of Germanic origin; compare Middle Dutch schuwen to avoid

Word Origin and History for skew

late 15c., "to turn aside" (intransitive), from Old North French eskiuer "shy away from, avoid," Old French eschiver (see eschew). Transitive sense of "turn (something) aside" is from 1570s. Meaning "depict unfairly" first recorded 1872, on notion of being "give oblique direction to," hence "to distort, to make slant." Statistical sense dates from 1929. Related: Skewed; skewing. The adjectival meaning "slanting, turned to one side" is recorded from c.1600, from the verb; noun meaning "slant, deviation" first attested 1680s.

skew in Science

skew

(sky)
A transformation of coordinates in which one coordinate is displaced in one direction in proportion to its distance from a coordinate plane or axis. A rectangle, for example, that undergoes skew is transformed into a parallelogram. Also called shear.