skew

Etymology 1

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.

verb

1. (transitive) To form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position.
   When making this joint it is important to see that the eccentric or crank is at dead-centre; if it is at the end or limit of its stroke, the rubber is skewed the full length of same; if it is at the centre, the skewing, which is the cause of wear, is halved. 1937, W. C. Warrell, “Machine Clothing”, in The Paper-maker and British Paper Trade Journal, volume XCIV, annual number, London: [s.n.], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6
   Thus asynchronous torques cannot be avoided but can be reduced by proper choice of coil span and by skewing the stator or rotor slots. 2009, Uday A. Bakshi, Mayuresh V. Bakshi, “Three Phase Induction Motors”, in Electrical Machines, Pune, Maharashtra: Technical Publications Pune, page 6-70
   Skewing an object, as we mention at the start of this section, involves distorting the angles of the object. For example, you can create a parallelogram by skewing a square, or you can create shadow effects with skewed text (which we show you later in this chapter). 2010, Philip Beadle, Mahesh Krishnan, “Enhancing the User Interface”, in Microsoft Silverlight 4 for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons
   The easiest way to skew objects is to use the Free Transform tool. … Use the left box to skew horizontally. To skew clockwise, click the current value and then either type a value between 1 and 89 or drag up. To skew counterclockwise, click the current value and then either type a value between -1 and -89 or drag down. Then press Enter or Return. 2010, Ellen Finkelstein, Gurdy Leete, Mary Leete, “You are the Object Editor”, in Flash Professional CS5 & Flash Catalyst CS5, Hoboken, M.J.: Wiley Publishing, part II (1,000 Pictures and 1,000 Words), page 124
   1. (statistics) To cause (a distribution) to be asymmetrical.
      We have looked at the obese and anorexic communities, whose conditions fall on a curve skewed towards overweight for determining the social norm of body weight and who face a golden-mean social ideal of body weight. 2006, Andrew Stark, “Between the Normal and the Ideal”, in The Limits of Medicine: Cure or Enhancement, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, page 75
2. (transitive) To bias or distort in a particular direction.
   A disproportionate number of female subjects in the study group skewed the results.
   Accordingly, public policy can be skewed towards certain interest groups which have the best organization and most resources; it can be skewed towards certain politically powerful state agencies; and it can be skewed by intense rivalries between different sectors of government itself. 2006, David Held, “Pluralism, Corporate Capitalism and the State”, in Models of Democracy, 3rd edition, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, page 165
   because of parliamentary rules written by the military after the 2014 coup that are skewed in its favour. 2023-05-14, Panarat Thepgumpanat, Panu Wongcha-um, “Thailand's opposition opens up big election lead as army parties slide”, in Reuters
   Trump urged his followers to “boycott baseball” – though, much like his core support, the sport’s fanbase skews older, male and white. 2023-06-12, Tom Dart, “US culture wars come to baseball as MLB celebrates Pride month”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
3. (transitive, Northumbria, Yorkshire) To hurl or throw.
4. (intransitive) To move obliquely; to move sideways, to sidle; to lie obliquely.
   [T]he plaintiff's surveyor says, his line struck the house ten inches in the rear and fifteen inches in the front; and farther that the "house is a little skewing and is not set exactly square." 1829 February, Charles Ewing, Chief Justice, William Halsted, Jr. (reporter), “JOHN DEN ex dem. WILLIAM BROWER against JOHN EMERSON”, in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the State of New-Jersey, volume V, Trenton, N.J.: Printed by Joseph Justice, →OCLC, page 283
   The upper sign corresponds to the case represented in the figure in which the arch skews to the right, and the lower one to the case in which it skews to the left. 1859 May, William G. Peck, “Equation of the Coursing Joint Curve”, in J[ohn] D[aniel] Runkle, editor, The Mathematical Monthly, volume I, number VIII, Cambridge, Mass.: John Bartlett; London: Trübner & Co., →OCLC, page 281
5. (intransitive) To jump back or sideways in fear or surprise; to shy, as a horse.
   The horses capered. One tore its reins from her hands, burning a trail across her palms. She clung to the other as it pulled against the restraint. Frantically, Brienne moved to its side, pitching the reins over the beast's head, and jammed her foot into the stirrup. The horse skewed, drawing her along on one foot. 1991, Kathleen Kirkwood [pseudonym; Anita Gordon], chapter 21, in The Valiant Heart, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books; revised edition, [s.l.]: Anita Gordon, 2013
6. (intransitive) To look at obliquely; to squint; hence, to look slightingly or suspiciously.

adj

1. (not comparable) Neither parallel nor perpendicular to a certain line; askew.
   a skew arch
   [O]ur earth which makes one in that airy fleet when it eſcaped ſo narrowly being ſhipwrackt in the great Deluge, was however ſo broken and diſordered that it loſt its equal poiſe and thereupon the centre of its gravity changing, one Pole became more inclined towards the Sun and the other more removed from it, in which ſkew poſture it hath ſtood ever ſince. 1698, Jo[hn] Keill, “Of the Perpendicular Position of the Axis of the Earth to the Plane of the Ecliptick”, in An Examination of Dr. Burnet’s Theory of the Earth.[…], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, →OCLC, page 78
   And this is done by cauſing the Threads of the Screw C D to take hold of the oblique or ſkew Teeth of the Wheel as c, and by continually turning the Wheel round to draw up a great Weight as W by means of the Rope which is wound on the Axis E F. 1745, J[ohn] T[heophilus] Desaguliers, “Lecture III”, in A Course of Experimental Philosophy, 2nd edition, volume I, W[illiam] Innys, T[homas] Longman and T. Shewell, and C. Hitch,[…], and M. Senex,[…], →OCLC, paragraph 78, page 124
   Over Barrow-street the arch is built with what is technically called knee'd or elbow quoins; the stones being cut so as to form an oblique or skew bed on the face of the ring, and to return to a square bed within: … 1834, “Description of the Line of Railroad from the Entrance Station, Westland-Row, to Kingstown”, in Thirteen Views of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, Dublin: P[hilip] Dixon Hardy,[…], →OCLC, page 13
   Here is another of those magnificent skew bridges, sprung from the sides of the excavation. Looking at it with the face towards the tunnel, when you are about 200 yards distant, the effect is very singular, as it appears to be a portion of the entrance thereto. [1838], Arthur Freeling, The London and Birmingham Railway Companion,[…], London: Whittaker and Company, →OCLC, page 178
   Their [the graves'] enclosure walls, within which several burials were found, were at right angles to the great wall of the town, and cut through the other graves (mastabas) which, though parallel to one another, were skew to the town walls. 1898, J[ames] E[dward] Quibell, “The Earliest Tombs”, in El Kab (Egyptian Research Account, 1897), London: Bernard Quaritch,[…], →OCLC, paragraph 4, page 3, column 1
   The last crossing, immediately short of Keswick station, is an inverted bowstring girder bridge with a skew span of 120ft. 1961 October, Voyageur, “The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 601
   Ocular tilt reaction …—the triad of head tilt in roll, skew deviation of the eyes, and cyclorotation of the eyes towards the head tilt—may indicate a lesion induced deviation of the primary position of the vertical VOR [vestibulo-ocular reflex] in either peripheral otolithic or central vestibular brain stem disorders. … Skew deviation, a vertical divergence of the eyes, theoretically can be due to: (1) hypertropia of one eye while the other eye maintains a normal position; … 1992, Marianne Dieterich, Thomas Brandt, “Subjective Visual Vertical and Eye-head Coordination (Roll) with Brain Stem Lesions”, in Alain Berthoz, Werner Graf, Pierre Paul Vidal, editors, The Head-neck Sensory Motor System, New York, N.Y., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, page 640
2. (not comparable, geometry) Of two lines in three-dimensional space: neither intersecting nor parallel.
   Through the given point there are two lines one of which is parallel to one of the given skew lines, while the other is parallel to the other of the given skew lines. These two "parallels" determine a plane, and the only plane, that is parallel to both the given skew lines. 1963, [George David] Birkhoff, [Ralph] Beatley, Basic Geometry: Answer Book, [New York, N.Y.]: Chelsea Publishing Company, →OCLC
3. (comparable, statistics) Of a distribution: asymmetrical about its mean.
   A slope value over 1 indicates that digits are skewer than the Benford condition in favor of low ones. A slope value less than 1 indicates that digits are less skewed as compared with the Benford condition. 2014, Alex Ely Kossovsky, “Saville Regression Measure”, in Benford’s Law: Theory, the General Law of Relative Quantities, and Forensic Fraud Detection Applications, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, section 3 (Data Compliance Tests), page 137
   The skewest possible distribution is that in which every but one target value has only one element and the other target value has all the other elements. 2016, Bettina Hüttenrauch, “Analysis of Data Augmentation KPIs”, in Targeting Using Augmented Data in Database Marketing: Decision Factors for Evaluating External Sources, Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler, →DOI, section 6.4.3 (Model Lift (Uniform)), page 199

adv

1. (rare) Askew, obliquely; awry.
   The walls are all united at one end into one head wall; which runs 14′ skew of the Pyramid on the W.; … [1883], W[illiam] M[atthew] Flinders Petrie, “The Outside of the Second Pyramid”, in The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, London: Field & Tuer,[…]; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.,[…]; Hamilton, Adams & Co.,[…], →OCLC, paragraph 72, page 101

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.
   We now come to Whiston village and bridge, (7½ miles) and after passing under a wooden bridge, dash under one of 47 feet span, of stone and brick, with a remarkable skew. 1832, James Scott Walker, “The Broad-green Embankment”, in An Accurate Description of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway,[…], 3rd edition, Liverpool: J. F. Cannell, printer,[…], →OCLC, page 29
   Thus one of the many skews in the Harleian Catalogue was set straight. (Don't let any one abuse the first Cataloguer of a Collection for skews. For all Catalogues (as for all Indexes) one ought to be grateful: for those without mistakes, most grateful.) 1869, F[rederick] J[ames] Furnivall, “Forewords”, in F. J. Furnivall, editor, Queene Elizabethes Achademy (by Sir Humphrey Gilbert):[…] (Early English Text Society Extra Series; VIII), London: N[icholas] Trübner & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page xvii
   The angle of skew, or obliquity, is the angle which the axis of the archway, A A, makes with a perpendicular to the face of the arch, B C A B. The span of the archway, "on the square," as it is called (that is, the perpendicular distance between the abutments), is less than the span on the skew, or parallel to the face of the arch, in the ratio of the cosine of the obliquity to unity. It is the span on the skew which is equal to that of the corresponding symmetrical arch. 1876, William John Macquorn Rankine, E. F. Bamber, “Of Masonry”, in A Manual of Civil Engineering, 11th edition, London: Charles Griffin and Company,[…], →OCLC, part II (Of Materials and Structures), section VIII (Of Stone and Brick Arches), paragraph 295 (Skew Arches), page 429
   The mean skew of the core to the base is 1′ 33″, and its mean azimuth - 5′ 16″ to true North. [1883], W[illiam] M[atthew] Flinders Petrie, “Outside of Great Pyramid”, in The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, London: Field & Tuer,[…]; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.,[…]; Hamilton, Adams & Co.,[…], →OCLC, paragraph 22, page 41
   It is apparent that by shifting the position of the hitching link the angle of skew may be increased or diminished as the conditions require. When dragging immediately over ruts or down the center of the road after the sides have been dragged, it is usually preferable to have the hitching link at the center of the chain and to run the drag without skew. 1917 March, “How to Use the Drag”, in The Road Drag and How It is Used (United States Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; no. 597), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 7
7. (electronics) A phenomenon in synchronous digital circuit systems (such as computers) in which the same sourced clock signal arrives at different components at different times.
   One application for which an optical filter can play an important role is that of a wideband connection with low time skew. … One signal, the clock, needs to be distributed to all parts of a digital circuit to synchronize its action. The necessarily long path results in the danger of the clock signal arriving at the wrong time (clock skew), limiting the maximum frequency at which the circuit may be clocked. 1989, Ivan Andonovic, Deepak Uttamchandani, editors, Principles of Modern Optical Systems, volume 1, Norwood, Mass.: Artech House, page 501
   Until recently, there has been a great reluctance to alter the clock network and attempt a nonzero-skew solution. However, recently, an increasing number of designers have been willing to utilize skews for performance enhancement. 2004, Sachin Sapatnekar, “Clocking and Clock Skew Optimization”, in Timing, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, section 9.8 (Conclusion), page 205
8. (statistics) A state of asymmetry in a distribution; skewness.
   Skewness (skew) is the degree to which a distribution's shape departs from symmetry …. The greater the departure, the greater the skew. Symmetric distributions have no skew. For instance, the normal distribution is symmetric and is thus not a skewed distribution. 2012, James A. Rosenthal, “Shape of Distribution”, in Statistics and Data Interpretation for Social Work, New York, N.Y.: Springer Publishing Company, section 5.3.1 (Characteristics), page 53
   Skew is the contour, or the unevenness, in a distribution, the dent in the bell curve. A negative skew suggests that the left half of the normal distribution (the left side of the mean) is twisted in such a way that the prospect of achieving negative returns is superior to that of achieving large positive returns. … When dealing with skew, traders strive to resolve how frequently in the trading time horizon they will obtain negative returns rather than positive returns. A skew demonstrates the relationship between the movement of an underlying asset and its volatility. 2013, Larry Shover, “Volatility Skew: Smile or Smirk?”, in Trading Options in Turbulent Markets: Master Uncertainty through Active Volatility Management, 2nd edition, Hoboken, N.J.: Bloomberg Press, John Wiley & Sons, page 47

Etymology 2

From Middle English skeu, skew (“stone with a sloping surface forming the slope of a gable, offset of a buttress, etc.”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman eschu, escuwe, eskeu, or Old Northern French eschieu, eskieu, eskiu, from Old French escu, escut, eschif (“a shield”) (modern French écu), from Latin scūtum (“a shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *skewH- (“to cover, protect”) or *skey- (“to cut, split”).

noun

1. (architecture) 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.
   How many yards of roofing and serking, in a Roof 45 feet, 8 in. long, from skew to skew; and 21 feet, 8 in. deep, from ridge to easing, including 9 inches for wall plates or double eave? 1838, James Morrison, “Appendix II. Duodecimals. Or Cross Multiplication.”, in A Concise System of Commercial Arithmetic, Adapted to Modern Practice:[…], new edition, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans,[…], →OCLC, page 210
   Skew, Skew-table: the term skew is still used in the north for a stone built into the bottom of a gable or other similar situation to support the coping above …] [1845, [John Henry Parker], “Skew, Skew-table”, in A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture, 4th edition, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Henry Parker; London: David Bogue, →OCLC, page 340
2. (chiefly Scotland, architecture) The coping of a gable.
   Gable Copings or Skews are of various forms of section, the most common varieties being the parallel sided, Fig. 654; the weathered, or feather-edged, Fig. 655; and the saddle-backed, Fig. 656. … The skews at the eaves terminate in what is termed a club-skew or skew-corbel. This admits of an infinite variety of forms, according to the style of the building, but the object is the same in all—namely, to afford a support and abutment to the skew. 1855, J. N., “MASON WORK”, in John C[halmers] Morton, editor, A Cyclopedia of Agriculture, Practical and Scientific,[…], volume II, Glasgow, Edinburgh: Blackie and Son[…], →OCLC, page 389
   The architecture of the steadings given in Plates I. to IX. is of the simplest description—plain rubble-work, with broached ashlar corners, rebates, lintels, and skews, and the roofs extending in stretches, and terminating in gables, without points to be affected by the weather. … A somewhat more ornamental style is given in Plate XV. of the farm-steading at Coleshill, in Berkshire, the corners and rebates being in raised work, and the skews of the gables ridged and pinnacled. 1861, Henry Stephens, Robert Scott Burn, “Division Second—Plans of Existing Steadings”, in The Book of Farm-buildings: Their Arrangement and Construction, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, 1st book (Principles of Arrangement), paragraph 276, page 50
3. (architecture, obsolete) One of the stones placed over the end of a gable, or forming the coping of a gable.
   https://books.google.com/books?id=rDwJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR28 page xxviii Here ensuithe an abstracte of the freemasons worke. … It'm, the walle new made on the west syde of the watergate … a bottres made wᵗ harde asheler of Kent, l. foot, and in Cane asheler a skew vj. foot, … https://books.google.com/books?id=rDwJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR29 page xxix It'm, at the Juell Hows door, iij. spaces covered wᵗ skew and crest, amontying xxxvj. fote of stone. 1533, John Bayley, “Appendix to Part I. [The Following is Extracted from a Survey Made of the Tower, in Order to a General Repair of Its Different Buildings, in the Twenty-third Year of King Henry the Eighth, Preserved in the Chapter-house at Westminster.]”, in The History and Antiquities of the Tower of London,[…] In Two Parts, part I, London: T[homas] Cadell,[…], published 1821, →OCLC, pages xxviii and xxix
   Skew and crest: this phrase, which occurs in the specifications for the repairs at the Tower of London, (23 H. VIII.,) plainly describes the common coping of a wall which consists of a sloping or skew surface surmounted by a roll moulding by way of crest; sometimes there are two skews, separated by a set-off. 1850, [John Henry Parker], “Skew and crest”, in A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture, 5th edition, volume I (Text), Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Henry Parker; London: David Bogue,[…], →OCLC, page 429