bias cut

transitive verb

variants or bias-cut

bias cut or bias-cut; bias cutting or bias-cutting; bias cuts or bias-cuts

: to cut (something) diagonally : to cut (something) on a bias

An attractive serving style is to bias-cut each chicken breast half into ¹/₄-inch slices.

—Barbara Mundall, Better Homes and Gardens, October 2000

Lucilla purchased more fabric and experimented until she got the knack of bias-cutting … printed silk.

—Bruce Boyer, Town & Country, June 1990

The stripes shall be sewed on the sleeve 1¹/₂ inches above the point of the cuff at an angle of 30 degrees with the bottom of the sleeve and the ends shall be bias cut to show a vertical edge.

—United States Marine Corps, Uniform Regulations

Slashes should always be bias cut and should never be cut along the grain line; the latter will cause fraying.

—Michele Morrow Harer, Big Book of Quilting, 2005

bias-cut adjective

Carve the joint in long thin bias-cut fillets, then turn it over and carve from the undercut.

—Elizabeth David, French Provincial Cooking, 1999

… bias-cut slices of hot sausage …

—James Hynes, Kings of Infinite Space, 2005

The people are like long, tapering candles, a swarm of tuxedos and bias-cut silks.

—Jane Mendelsohn, I was Amelia Earhart, 1996

… one of those unforgiving bias-cut dresses …

—Charla Krupp, Time, 19 Mar. 2001

Word History

First Known Use

1898, in the meaning defined above

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