Word.ws English Dictionary

skew

UK/skjuː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/skjʉw/

skew verb: to form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position.

Verb

skew (third-person singular simple present skews, present participle skewing, simple past and past participle skewed)

  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, →ISBN, page 6-70
    Antonyms:
    unskew
    1. (transitive) 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, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, page 165
    Synonyms:
    color
  3. (Northumbria, Yorkshire, transitive) To hurl or throw.
  4. (intransitive) To move obliquely; to move sideways, to sidle; to lie obliquely.
    • Child, (ſays the Mother) You muſt Uſe your ſelf to Walk Streight, without Skewing, and Shailing ſo Every Step you ſet: Pray Mother (ſays the Young Crab) do but ſet the Example your ſelf, and I'll follow ye.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “[The Fables of Anianus, &c.] Fab[le] CCXXI. An Old Crab and a Young.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC, page 193
    • [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...
  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...1991, Kathleen Kirkwood [pseudonym; Anita Gordon], chapter 21, in The Valiant Heart, New York, N.Y.: Jove Books, →ISBN; revised edition, [s.l.]: Anita Gordon, 2013, →ISBN
  6. (intransitive) To look at obliquely; to squint; hence, to look slightingly or suspiciously.
    • [C]an this durt draw us / To ſuch a ſtupid tameneſſe, that our ſervice / Neglected, and look'd lamely on, and skewd at / With a few honourable words, and this, is righted?c. 1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Loyal Subiect”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II...
    • The cows stood round her in a wondering way, / And kept the stranger with her fears at bay; / They tost their heads and snuff'd the morning gales, / Skewing at her: [...]1827, John Clare, “The Memory of Love; a Tale”, in The Shepherd’s Calendar; […], London: […] [F]or John Taylor, […], by James Duncan, […], →OCLC, page 173

Adjective

skew (not generally comparable, comparative skewer or more skew, superlative skewest or most skew)

  1. (not comparable, usually) 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...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...
  2. (not comparable, usually) 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, not comparable, usually) 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...
    • 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...

Adverb

skew (comparative more skew, superlative most skew)

  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....

Noun (1)

skew (plural skews)

  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...
  7. 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...1989, Ivan Andonovic, Deepak Uttamchandani, editors, Principles of Modern Optical Systems, volume 1, Norwood, Mass.: Artech House, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, section 9.8 (Conclusion), page 205
  8. 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, →ISBN, 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...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...

Noun (2)

skew (plural skews)

  1. 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...
    • 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...
  2. (Scotland) 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...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...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...
  3. (obsolete) One of the stones placed over the end of a gable, or forming the coping of a gable.
    • [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, [...] [page xxix] It'm, at the Juell Hows door, iij. spaces covered wᵗ skew...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...
    • 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...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...

Noun (3)

skew

  1. (Cornwall) A thick drizzling rain or driving mist.
    • I am in a regular Cornish skew as to the future, like that thou and I were favoured with when we astonished the natives at Sidmouth - can't see an inch before me.1888, Thomas Wemyss Reid, Life of the Right Honourable William Edward Forster, page 128
    • ... the only bit of lewth I had When it came to a skew was a high bunch of kekezza, that' pon a gurgey grew.1895, Joseph Thomas, Randigal Rhymes and a Glossary of Cornish Words, page 27

skew meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Gujarati

skew in Tamil

கோணலான, சரிவு, சாய்ந்த, சாய்வு, மச்சுமுடிக்கல், கோணல்

skew in Malayalam

സ്ക്യൂ

skew in Kannada

ತಿರುಚಿದ, ಓರೆಯಾಗಿರುವ, ತಿರುಚಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ, ಮಾಲಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ

skew in Gujarati

સ્ક્યુ
More languagesFewer languages
skew in Odia
ସ୍କ୍ଯ଼ୁ, ସ୍କ୍ଯ଼ୁ କରନ୍ତୁ
skew in Nepali
स्क्यु
skew in Persian
چوله čowle

Examples of skew in a sentence

  • Skewing an object, as we mention at the start of this section, involves distorting the angles of the object.2010, Philip Beadle, Mahesh Krishnan, “Enhancing the User Interface”, in Microsoft Silverlight 4 for Dummies (For Dummies), Hoboken, N.J....
  • The easiest way to skew objects is to use the Free Transform tool. [...] Use the left box to skew horizontally.2010, Ellen Finkelstein, Gurdy Leete, Mary Leete, “You are the Object Editor”, in Flash Professional CS5 & Flash Catalyst CS5, Hoboken...
  • because of parliamentary rules written by the military after the 2014 coup that are skewed in its favour.2023 May 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 June 12, Tom Dart, “US culture wars come to baseball as MLB celebrates Pride month”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

All 25 example sentences with skew

Synonyms of skew

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of skew

Forms of skew

Verb
third-person singular presentskews
present participleskewing
past participleskewed
pastskewed
Adjective
comparativeskewer
comparativemore skew
superlativeskewest
superlativemost skew
Adverb
comparativemore skew
superlativemost skew
Noun
pluralskews

Past tense of skew: skewed

Origin of skew

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.

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”).

Perhaps from a Cornish word, though the closest Cornish word is kuas/cwas, which would require much phonological modification; thus, perhaps instead simply from the skewed angle wind may drive such rain to fall in.

Words formed from skew

Phrases with skew

Words that rhyme with skew

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about skew

What does skew mean?
Skew means to form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position.
What is skew in Tamil?
Skew in Tamil is கோணலான, சரிவு, சாய்ந்த. See Skew meaning in Tamil.
How do you use skew in a sentence?
Skewing an object, as we mention at the start of this section, involves distorting the angles of the object.
What part of speech is skew?
Skew can be a verb, an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce skew?
Skew is pronounced /skjuː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of skew?
The past tense of skew is skewed.

Words near skew in the dictionary

  1. skeuomorphs
  2. Skevington
  3. Skevington's daughter
  4. Skevington's daughters
  5. skevish
  6. skew
  7. skew arch
  8. skew arches
  9. skew bevel gear
  10. skew bevel gears
  11. skew bridge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skew (page history and authors); skew (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); skew (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); skew (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); skew (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); skew (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); skew (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-skew.ogg.

Cite this entry: “skew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.