ob|lique´ness

ob|lique «uh BLEEK, -BLYK», adjective, adverb, verb, -liqued, -liqu|ing, noun.

–adj.

1. not straight up and down; not straight across; slanting: »

This terrace or garden…took an oblique view of the open sea (Thomas L. Peacock). Upon others we can look but in oblique; only upon ourselves in direct (John Donne).

2. Figurative. not straightforward; indirect: »

She made an oblique reference to her illness, but did not mention it directly. All censure of a man's self is oblique praise (Samuel Johnson).

3. Figurative. not upright and moral; underhanded: »

oblique dealings.

4. (of a solid figure) not having the axis perpendicular to the plane of the base.

5. Grammar. of or in an oblique case.

6. Botany. having unequal sides: »

an oblique leaf.

7. Anatomy. situated obliquely; not transverse or longitudinal: »

oblique muscles, fibers, or ligaments.

–adv.

(in military use) by turning 45 degrees: »

to march oblique to the left.

–v.i., v.t.

1. to have or take an oblique direction; slant.

2. (in military use) to advance obliquely by turning 45 degrees to the right or left and marching in the new direction.

–n.

1. something oblique, such as a line or figure.

2. Anatomy. an oblique muscle: »

The superior and inferior obliques roll the eyeball about the visual axis (Scientific American).

╂[< Latin oblīquus < ob- against + a root līc- to bend, as in licinus bent upward]

–ob|lique´ly, adverb.

–ob|lique´ness, noun.