bias

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A line going diagonally across the grain of fabric: Cut the cloth on the bias.
2. n. A preference or an inclination, especially one that inhibits impartial judgment.
3. n. An unfair act or policy stemming from prejudice.
4. n. A statistical sampling or testing error caused by systematically favoring some outcomes over others.
5. n. Sports A weight or irregularity in a ball that causes it to swerve, as in lawn bowling.
6. n. Sports The tendency of such a ball to swerve.
7. n. The fixed voltage applied to an electrode.
8. adj. Slanting or diagonal; oblique: a bias fold.
9. v. To influence in a particular, typically unfair direction; prejudice.
10. v. To apply a small voltage to (a grid).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An oblique or diagonal line; especially, a cut which is oblique to the texture of a fabric; hence, in dressmaking, a seam formed by bringing together two pieces thus cut; specifically, one of the front seams of a close-fitting waist: sometimes called a dart.
2. n. In bowling, a bulge or greater weight on one side of a bowl; a difference in the shape and weight of the two sides or poles of a bowl, causing it to curve in its course toward the lighter and less bulged side; hence, the curved course of such a bowl.
3. n. A one-sided tendency of the mind; undue propensity toward an object; a particular leaning or inclination; bent; specifically, in law, prejudice, as of a witness: used most frequently to denote prejudice and habits of thought which prevent the fair or dispassionate consideration of any subject or question.
4. n. Synonyms Propensity, Inclination, etc. (see bent), prepossession, predisposition, predilection, partiality.
5. Oblique; slanting; diagonal to the outline or to the texture: now used only or chiefly of fabrics or dress: as, a bias line (in former use) in a drawing; a bias piece in a garment.
6. Loaded or swelled on one side, like a biased bowl.
7. In a slanting manner; obliquely.
8. To give a bias to, as a bowl; furnish with a bias. See bias, n., 2.
9. To incline to one side; give a particular direction to the mind of; prejudice; warp: prepossess: as, the judgment is often biased by interest.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable (uncountable) inclination towards something; predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection
2. n. countable, textiles the diagonal line between warp and weft in a woven fabric
3. n. electronics a voltage or current applied for example to a transistor electrode
4. n. statistics the difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it
5. n. sports In the game of crown green bowls: a weight added to one side of a bowl so that as it rolls, it will follow a curved rather than a straight path; the oblique line followed by such a bowl; the lopsided shape or structure of such a bowl.
6. v. transitive To place bias upon; to influence.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A weight on the side of the ball used in the game of bowls, or a tendency imparted to the ball, which turns it from a straight line.
2. n. A leaning of the mind; propensity or prepossession toward an object or view, not leaving the mind indifferent; bent; inclination.
3. n. A wedge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.
4. n. A slant; a diagonal.
5. adj. obsolete Inclined to one side; swelled on one side.
6. adj. Cut slanting or diagonally, as cloth.
7. adv. In a slanting manner; crosswise; obliquely; diagonally.
8. v. To incline to one side; to give a particular direction to; to influence; to prejudice; to prepossess.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. slanting diagonally across the grain of a fabric
2. n. a line or cut across a fabric that is not at right angles to a side of the fabric
3. v. influence in an unfair way
4. n. a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation
5. v. cause to be biased