oblique

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   slanting or inclined in direction or course or position--neither parallel nor perpendicular nor right-angled

   the oblique rays of the winter sun

2. 2
   adj

   Not erect or perpendicular; not parallel to, or at right angles from, the base.

   Italic fonts are sometimes described as oblique in typographic terminology.

3. 3
   adj

   Not straightforward; indirect; by implication; (sometimes even) obscure, ambiguous, or confusing.

   The email from HR obliquely informed her that some complaints about her had been received.

4. 4
   adj

   Disingenuous; underhand; morally corrupt.

   For the love we bear our friends, / Tho nere so strongly grounded, / Hath in it certain oblique ends / If to the bottome sounded

5. 5
   adj

   Not direct in descent; not following the line of father and son; collateral.

   His natural affection in a direct line was strong; in an oblique, but weak; for no man ever loved Children more, or a Brother less.

6. 6
   adj

   Having the base of the blade asymmetrical, with one side lower than the other.

   Leaves long, lanceolate, tapering upward from the middle to an acute point, […] secondaries very oblique, distinct, alternate, parallel, curved in transversing the blade

7. 7
   adj

   Growing at an angle that is neither vertical nor horizontal.

   Oblique and sinker roots will normally be under a greater compression stress than lateral roots.

8. 8
   adj

   Indirect; employing the actual words of the speaker but as related by a third person, having the first person in pronoun and verb converted into the third person and adverbs of present time into the past, etc.

   They found out obliquely that she had heard from HR about the comments and was taking some time to absorb the sting of an implied reprimand.

Etymology

From Middle French oblique, from Latin oblīquus (also spelled oblīcus) (“slanting, sideways, indirect, envious”).