skew

1. (not comparable) Neither parallel nor perpendicular to a certain line; askew.Examples: "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."; "And this is done by cauſing the Threads of the Screw C D to take hold of the oblique or ſkew Teeth of the Wheel as c, and by continually turning the Wheel round to draw up a great Weight as W by means of the Rope which is wound on the Axis E F."not-comparableusually

2. (not comparable, geometry) Of two lines in three-dimensional space: neither intersecting nor parallel.Examples: "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."not-comparableusually

3. (comparable, statistics) Of a distribution: asymmetrical about its mean.Examples: "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."comparablenot-comparableusually

1. (rare) Askew, obliquely; awry.Examples: "The walls are all united at one end into one head wall; which runs 14′ skew of the Pyramid on the W.; [...]"rare

1. (electronics) A phenomenon in synchronous digital circuit systems (such as computers) in which the same sourced clock signal arrives at different components at different times.Examples: "One application for which an optical filter can play an important role is that of a wideband connection with low time skew. [...] One signal, the clock, needs to be distributed to all parts of a digital circuit to synchronize its action. The necessarily long path results in the danger of the clock signal arriving at the wrong time (clock skew), limiting the maximum frequency at which the circuit may be clocked."; "Until recently, there has been a great reluctance to alter the clock network and attempt a nonzero-skew solution. However, recently, an increasing number of designers have been willing to utilize skews for performance enhancement."

2. (statistics) A state of asymmetry in a distribution; skewness.Examples: "Skewness (skew) is the degree to which a distribution's shape departs from symmetry [...]. The greater the departure, the greater the skew. Symmetric distributions have no skew. For instance, the normal distribution is symmetric and is thus not a skewed distribution."; "Skew is the contour, or the unevenness, in a distribution, the dent in the bell curve. A negative skew suggests that the left half of the normal distribution (the left side of the mean) is twisted in such a way that the prospect of achieving negative returns is superior to that of achieving large positive returns. [...] When dealing with skew, traders strive to resolve how frequently in the trading time horizon they will obtain negative returns rather than positive returns. A skew demonstrates the relationship between the movement of an underlying asset and its volatility."

1. (architecture) A stone at the foot of the slope of a gable, the offset of a buttress, etc., cut with a sloping surface and with a check to receive the coping stones and retain them in place; a skew-corbel.Examples: "How many yards of roofing and serking, in a Roof 45 feet, 8 in. long, from skew to skew; and 21 feet, 8 in. deep, from ridge to easing, including 9 inches for wall plates or double eave?"; "Skew, Skew-table: the term skew is still used in the north for a stone built into the bottom of a gable or other similar situation to support the coping above [...]"

2. (chiefly Scotland, architecture) The coping of a gable.Examples: "Gable Copings or Skews are of various forms of section, the most common varieties being the parallel sided, Fig. 654; the weathered, or feather-edged, Fig. 655; and the saddle-backed, Fig. 656. [...] The skews at the eaves terminate in what is termed a club-skew or skew-corbel. This admits of an infinite variety of forms, according to the style of the building, but the object is the same in all—namely, to afford a support and abutment to the skew."; "The architecture of the steadings given in Plates I. to IX. is of the simplest description—plain rubble-work, with broached ashlar corners, rebates, lintels, and skews, and the roofs extending in stretches, and terminating in gables, without points to be affected by the weather. [...] A somewhat more ornamental style is given in Plate XV. of the farm-steading at Coleshill, in Berkshire, the corners and rebates being in raised work, and the skews of the gables ridged and pinnacled."Scotland

3. (architecture, obsolete) One of the stones placed over the end of a gable, or forming the coping of a gable.Examples: "[page xxviii] Here ensuithe an abstracte of the freemasons worke. [...] It'm, the walle new made on the west syde of the watergate [...] a bottres made wᵗ harde asheler of Kent, l. foot, and in Cane asheler a skew vj. foot, [...] [page xxix] It'm, at the Juell Hows door, iij. spaces covered wᵗ skew and crest, amontying xxxvj. fote of stone."; "Skew and crest: this phrase, which occurs in the specifications for the repairs at the Tower of London, (23 H. VIII.,) plainly describes the common coping of a wall which consists of a sloping or skew surface surmounted by a roll moulding by way of crest; sometimes there are two skews, separated by a set-off."obsolete

1. (chiefly Cornwall) A thick drizzling rain or driving mist.Examples: "I am in a regular Cornish skew as to the future, like that thou and I were favoured with when we astonished the natives at Sidmouth - can't see an inch before me."; "... the only bit of lewth I had When it came to a skew was a high bunch of kekezza, that' pon a gurgey grew."; "then we walked on along the edge of the rain forest, through a perpetual Cornish "skew," which wetted every-thing within a quarter of a mile of the falls. We went to the edge of the cliff in two or three places and watched the Devil's cascade rushing head-long over its rocks into the seething caldron[…]"Cornwall