bias

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   slanting diagonally across the grain of a fabric

   a bias fold

2. 2
   verb

   to influence in an unfair way

   You are biasing my choice by telling me yours.

3. 3
   noun

   Inclination towards something.

   Morality […] give[s] a bias to all their [men's] actions.

4. 4
   noun

   In the games of crown green bowls and lawn bowls: a weight added to one side of a bowl so that as it rolls, it will follow a curved rather than a straight path; the oblique line followed by such a bowl; the lopsided shape or structure of such a bowl. In lawn bowls, the curved course is caused only by the shape of the bowl. The use of weights is prohibited.

   there is a concealed bias within the spheroid

5. 5
   noun

   A person's favourite member of a K-pop band.

   The last thing you want is for your camera to die when you finally get that selca with your bias.

6. 6
   verb

   To place bias upon; to influence.

   Our prejudices bias our views.

7. 7
   verb

   To give a bias to.

   2002, H. Dijkstra, J. Libby, Overview of silicon detectors, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 494, 86–93, p. 87. On the ohmic side n⁺ is implanted to provide the ohmic contact to bias the detector.

8. 8
   adj

   Inclined to one side; swelled on one side.

   Thou, trumpet, there’s my purſe; / Now cracke thy lungs, and ſplit thy braſen pipe: / Blow, villaine, till thy ſphered Bias cheeke / Out-ſwell the collicke of puft Aquilon: / Come, ſtretch thy cheſt, and let thy eyes ſpout bloud: / Thou bloweſt for Hector.

Etymology

c. 1520 in the sense "oblique line". As a technical term in the game of bowls c. 1560, whence the figurative use (c. 1570). From Middle French biais, adverbially ("sideways, askance, against the grain") c. 1250, as a noun ("oblique angle, slant") from the late 16th century. The French word is likely from Old Occitan biais, itself of obscure origin, most likely from Vulgar Latin *biaxius (“with two axes”).