skew

[ skyoo ]

verb (used with object)

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

   In a crochet project, a slip stitch can skew the edge a bit if you use it to finish the final round.

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

   The television show is skewed to the young teenager.

3. to distort; depict unfairly:

   When other researchers looked into the report, they found misrepresentation of data that skewed the evidence.

4. Statistics. to cause (a distribution) to have a disproportionate number of data points above or below the mean:

   The income categories for transit commuters were skewed toward higher incomes because the survey was only distributed through a phone app.

verb (used without object)

1. to turn aside or swerve; take an oblique course:

   The car skewed sharply to the right when it hit the patch of ice.

2. to display a tendency in a particular direction:

   My reading skews toward nonfiction, which I suppose isn't that surprising for a historian.

3. to be distorted or unfairly depicted:

   The narrative presented by the country's leading newspapers skews toward an account that fits the needs of the state.

4. to look obliquely; squint.

noun

1. a tendency in a particular direction:

   Officials involved in budget-related discussions said that there was a skew towards social sector spending.

2. an oblique movement, direction, or position.
3. Also called skew chisel. a wood chisel having a cutting edge set obliquely.

adjective

1. having an oblique direction or position; slanting; sideways:

   The picture is square, but the angles of the trees give it a skew look.

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

   skew gearing.

3. Mathematics. (of a dyad or dyadic) equal to the negative of its conjugate.
4. (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.
5. Statistics. (of a distribution) not symmetrical; having skewness.

skew

/ skjuː /

adjective

1. placed in or turning into an oblique position or course
2. 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

3. maths
   1. 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
   2. (of a curve) not lying in a plane
4. (of a statistical distribution) not having equal probabilities above and below the mean; non-normal
5. distorted or biased

noun

1. an oblique, slanting, or indirect course or position
2. 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

1. to take or cause to take an oblique course or direction
2. intr to look sideways; squint
3. tr to place at an angle
4. tr to distort or bias

skew

/ skyo̅o̅ /

1. 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.
2. Also called shear

Word History and Origins

Origin of skew¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; (for the verb) Middle English skewen “to slip away, swerve,” from Middle Dutch schuwen “to get out of the way, shun,” derivative of schu ( Dutch schuw ) shy ¹; adjective derivative of the verb, probably by analogy with askew; noun derivative of the verb and adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of skew¹

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

Example Sentences

“These papers can significantly skew the literature,” he says.

From Science Magazine

But that number is skewed by the size of Red Bull’s advantage at the start of the year.

From BBC

But many of those results may have been skewed due to a lack of female representation, the study suggests.

From Science Daily

“It was obvious within 2 months of his purchase that the algorithm was already skewing against people who post factual, accurate information on climate,” says Katharine Hayhoe, a climate researcher at Texas Tech University.

From Science Magazine

The phenomenon occurs in districts where in-person voting on election day is skewed toward Republicans, while mail ballots counted later trend toward Democrats.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• alter
• bias
• misrepresent
• slant