bevel

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The angle or inclination of a line or surface that meets another at any angle but 90°.
2. n. Two rules joined together as adjustable arms used to measure or draw angles of any size or to fix a surface at an angle. Also called bevel square.
3. v. To cut at an inclination that forms an angle other than a right angle: beveled the edges of the table.
4. v. To be inclined; slant.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The obliquity or inclination of a particular surface of a solid body to another surface of the same body; the angle contained by two adjacent sides of anything, as of a timber used in ship-building. When this angle is acute it is called an under bevel (or beveling), and when obtuse a standing bevel.
2. n. An instrument used by mechanics for drawing angles and for adjusting the abutting surfaces of work to the same inclination. It consists of two limbs jointed together, one called the stock or handle and the other the blade; the latter is movable on a pivot at the joint, and can be adjusted so as to include any angle between it and the stock. The blade is often curved on the edge to suit the sweep of an arch or vault. See bevel-square.
3. n. A piece of type-metal nearly type-high, with a beveled edge, used by stereotypers to form the flange on the sides of the plates.
4. n. Same as bevel-angle.
5. n. In heraldry, an angular break in any right line.
6. Having the form of bevel; aslant; sloping; out of the perpendicular; not upright: used figuratively by Shakspere.
7. To cut to a bevel-angle: as, to bevel a piece of wood.
8. To incline toward a point or from a direct line; slant or incline off to a bevel-angle.

Wiktionary

1. n. An edge that is canted, one that is not a 90 degree angle.
2. v. transitive To give a canted edge to a surface.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Any angle other than a right angle; the angle which one surface makes with another when they are not at right angles; the slant or inclination of such surface.
2. n. An instrument consisting of two rules or arms, jointed together at one end, and opening to any angle, for adjusting the surfaces of work to the same or a given inclination; -- called also a bevel square.
3. adj. Having the slant of a bevel; slanting.
4. adj. Poetic Hence: Morally distorted; not upright.
5. v. To cut to a bevel angle; to slope the edge or surface of.
6. v. To deviate or incline from an angle of 90°, as a surface; to slant.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. cut a bevel on; shape to a bevel
2. n. two surfaces meeting at an angle different from 90 degrees
3. n. a hand tool consisting of two rules that are hinged together so you can draw or measure angles of any size