skew

Definition

To form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position.

Etymology

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.

Example Sentences

• "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."
• "Thus asynchronous torques cannot be avoided but can be reduced by proper choice of coil span and by skewing the stator or rotor slots."
• "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)."