skew

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To distort or bias something so it gives a false or one-sided result.

   Having too many young people in the survey skewed the results.

2. 2
   verb

   To set or turn something at a slanting angle.

   The heavy wind had skewed the fence posts to one side.

3. 3
   adj

   Slanting or set at an angle rather than straight.

   The picture on the wall hung slightly skew.

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”).

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