Oblique

ob-lēk′, adj. slanting: not perpendicular: not parallel: not straightforward: obscure: ( geom. ) not a right-angle: ( gram. ) denoting any case except the nominative.— v.i. to deviate from a direct line or from the perpendicular, to slant: to advance obliquely by facing half right or left and then advancing.— ns. Obliquā′tion , Oblique′ne , Obliq′uity , state of being oblique: a slanting direction: error or wrong: irregularity.— adv. Oblique′ly .— adj. Obliq′uid ( Spens. ), oblique.— Oblique cone or cylinder , one whose axis is oblique to the plane of its base; Oblique narration or speech (L. oratio obliqua ), indirect narration, 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, adverbs of present time into the corresponding adverbs of past time, .; Oblique sailing , the reduction of the position of a ship from the various courses made good, oblique to the meridian or parallel of latitude; Obliquity of the ecliptic , the angle between the plane of the earth's orbit and that of the earth's equator. [Fr.,—L. obliquus — ob , before, liquis , slanting.]