skew

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.

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

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

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.

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.

To hurl or throw.

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.

[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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.; [...]