oblique

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Having a slanting or sloping direction, course, or position; inclined.
2. adj. Mathematics Designating geometric lines or planes that are neither parallel nor perpendicular.
3. adj. Botany Having sides of unequal length or form: an oblique leaf.
4. adj. Anatomy Situated in a slanting position; not transverse or longitudinal: oblique muscles or ligaments.
5. adj. Indirect or evasive: oblique political maneuvers.
6. adj. Devious, misleading, or dishonest: gave oblique answers to the questions.
7. adj. Not direct in descent; collateral.
8. adj. Grammar Designating any noun case except the nominative or the vocative.
9. n. An oblique thing, such as a line, direction, or muscle.
10. n. Nautical The act of changing course by less than 90°.
11. adv. At an angle of 45°.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Of lines or planes, making with a given line, surface, or direction an angle that is less than 90°; neither perpendicular nor parallel; of angles, either acute or obtuse, not right; in general, not direct; aslant; slanting. See cuts under angle.
2. Indirect, in a figurative sense: as, an oblique reproach or taunt.
3. Questionable from a moral point of view; not upright or morally direct; evil.
4. In botany, unequal-sided.
5. n. In anatomy, an oblique muscle: as, the external oblique of the abdomen. See obliquus.
6. To deviate from a direct line or from the perpendicular; slant; slope.
7. To advance slantingly or obliquely; specifically (military), to advance obliquely by making a half-face to the right or left and marching in the new direction.
8. n. In geometry, except the perpendicular, any sect from a point to a straight or a plane.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Not erect or perpendicular; neither parallel to, nor at right angles from, the base; slanting; inclined.
2. adj. Not straightforward; indirect; obscure; hence, disingenuous; underhand; perverse; sinister.
3. adj. Not direct in descent; not following the line of father and son; collateral.
4. adj. botany, of leaves Having the base of the blade asymmetrical, with one side larger or extending further than the other.
5. n. geometry An oblique line.
6. n. The punctuation sign "/"
7. n. grammar The oblique case.
8. v. To deviate from a perpendicular line; to move in an oblique direction.
9. v. military To march in a direction oblique to the line of the column or platoon; — formerly accomplished by oblique steps, now by direct steps, the men half-facing either to the right or left.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Not erect or perpendicular; neither parallel to, nor at right angles from, the base; slanting; inclined.
2. adj. Not straightforward; indirect; obscure. disingenuous; underhand; perverse; sinister.
3. adj. Not direct in descent; not following the line of father and son; collateral.
4. n. (Geom.) An oblique line.
5. v. To deviate from a perpendicular line; to move in an oblique direction.
6. v. (Mil.) To march in a direction oblique to the line of the column or platoon; -- formerly accomplished by oblique steps, now by direct steps, the men half-facing either to the right or left.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any grammatical case other than the nominative
2. adj. indirect in departing from the accepted or proper way; misleading.
3. n. a diagonally arranged abdominal muscle on either side of the torso
4. adj. slanting or inclined in direction or course or position--neither parallel nor perpendicular nor right-angled