skew

[ skyoo ]

/ skyu /

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See synonyms for: skew / skewed / skewer / skewest on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)

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

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.

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

verb (used without object)

to turn aside or swerve; take an oblique course.

to look obliquely; squint.

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.

Statistics. (of a distribution) not symmetrical; having skewness.

noun

an oblique movement, direction, or position.

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

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Origin of skew

First recorded in 1350–1400; (verb) Middle English skewen “to slip away, swerve,” from Middle Dutch schuwen “to get out of the way, shun,” derivative of schu (Dutch schuw ) shy¹; (adjective) derivative of the verb (probably influenced by askew); the noun is derivative of the verb and adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH skew

skew , skewer

Words nearby skew

sketchpad, sketchy, skete, skeuomorph, skeuomorphism, skew, skew arch, skewback, skewbald, skewed, skewer

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use skew in a sentence

Hillis also emailed lawmakers with a personal plea, pitching the bill as a way to entice more young people, who tend to skew liberal, into the Republican fold.
Virginia set to pass historic bill giving students time off to protest — because teen Republicans and Dems teamed up to demand it|Hannah Natanson|February 2, 2021|Washington Post
Even though this is an activity skewed towards to wealthier people, it is helping a remote economy, and it is getting people outside at a time when we feel caged in.
What America's Richest Ski Town's Handling of COVID-19 Says About the Country|Lucas Isakowitz|February 1, 2021|Time
That’s both because it was a shortened year — only 23 appearances for him — and because pitch usage doesn’t often skew much for a guy who throws a near-even diet of sliders and four-seam fastballs.
Brad Hand thrived with lower velocity in 2020. With the Nats, he wants to bring back the heat.|Jesse Dougherty|January 26, 2021|Washington Post
Day-care operators say their workers, whose employees tend to skew older than teachers and often make minimum wage, should be next in line for vaccination.
D.C.’s day-care employees criticize the city’s vaccine plan for prioritizing school staff over them|Perry Stein|January 22, 2021|Washington Post

Parler attracted an audience that skewed hard to the right, including some who came to the service because they believed Twitter was biased against conservatives.
Why We Published More Than 500 Videos Taken by Parler Users of the Capitol Riot|by Scott Klein and Jeff Kao|January 17, 2021|ProPublica
In Scotland, hourly wage inequality matches the rest of the United Kingdom once the skew of London is factored out.
Scotland’s ‘Yes’ Campaign and the Myth of Scottish Equality|Noah Caldwell|September 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Other colleges took more overt actions to skew their Clery Act numbers.
No Rapes On Campus? No Way.|Emily Shire|July 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
There are a number of inadvertent and purposeful ways for universities to skew their Clery Act numbers.
No Rapes On Campus? No Way.|Emily Shire|July 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Those numbers skew heavily toward the males, with just over 11 percent of male high school students reporting use.
Smokeless Tobacco: A Forgotten Teen Risk|Russell Saunders|June 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Using capital gains but not government income would tend to skew the results toward the wealthy.
Fact-Checking the Sunday Shows, April 27|PunditFact.com|April 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Niagara Falls' spectacular skew-wise splashing toward the Canadian side didn't set many hearts at ease, either.
Old Friends Are the Best|Jack Sharkey
She was put together skew-geed an' one side of her was so out of geer that she couldn't run straight even on a macadam road.
Five Little Starrs in the Canadian Forest|Lillian Elizabeth Roy
Another bridge is a perfectly constructed skew arch, which the train crosses a few feet after leaving Chicago.
Harper's Round Table, June 4, 1895|Various
That'll make everyone skew all weird and screwy, and make everyone look guilty.
Little Brother|Cory Doctorow
Of a truth I will even buy me a skew-bald mount and ride round corners in search of the like reputation.
A King's Comrade|Charles Whistler

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 asymmetricala 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

(intr) to look sideways; squint

(tr) to place at an angle

(tr) to distort or bias

Word Origin for skew

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for skew

skew

[ skyōō ]

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

skew

Origin of skew

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH skew

Words nearby skew

Words related to skew

How to use skew in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for skew

Word Origin for skew

Scientific definitions for skew