I. ˈbīəs noun
( plural bi·as·es -əsə̇z)
Etymology: Middle French biais, from Old Provençal, perhaps irregular from Greek epikarsios athwart, oblique, from epi on + -karsios (as in enkarsios athwart, oblique); akin to Lithuanian skersas oblique, Russian cherez over, across
1. : a line diagonal to the grain of a fabric ; especially : a line at a 45° angle to the selvage producing a cut with some stretchability and often utilized in the cutting of garments for smoother fit
2.
a. : an inclination of temperament or outlook
a strong liberal bias
often : such prepossession with some object or point of view that the mind does not respond impartially to anything related to this object or point of view
the most pernicious kind of bias consists in falsely supposing yourself to have none — Walter Moberly
: prejudice
b. : bent , tendency , trend
a panel of experts of psychiatric bias
the present bias of trade in our favor
sometimes : inclination
my brother had a strong bias toward the scholarly life
c. statistics : a tendency of an estimate to deviate in one direction from a true value (as by reason of nonrandom sampling)
3. now dialect England : established procedure : settled way or course
there is no putting him out of his bias . He is a regular piece of clockwork — Samuel Richardson
4. archaic : anything tending to influence one in a particular direction : a determining influence
5. lawn bowling
a. : a peculiarity in the shape of a bowl that causes it to swerve when rolled on the green
b. : a tendency of the bowl to swerve ; also : the impulse causing this tendency
c. : the swerve of the bowl
6. : an unvarying component of the electric potential difference between a given element of an electron tube and the cathode — see grid bias
Synonyms: see predilection
•
- on the bias
II. adjective
1. : diagonal , slanting, oblique
a bias light
trimmed with bias bands of velvet
— used chiefly of fabrics and their cut; compare bias I 1
2. obsolete : swelled or weighted on one side
3. : of, relating to, or exhibiting bias
• bi·as·ness noun -es
III. adverb
Etymology: bias (II)
1. : in a slanting manner : obliquely , diagonally
cut cloth bias
2. obsolete : awry , amiss
IV. transitive verb
( bi·ased or bi·assed ; biased or biassed ; bi·as·ing or bi·as·sing ; bi·as·es or bi·as·ses )
Etymology: bias (I)
1. : to give a bias to : give a settled and often prejudiced outlook to : influence , prepossess
fixed ideas may bias observation of events
his background biases him against foreigners
2. : to apply a slight negative or positive voltage to (as a vacuum-tube grid)