How to Use on a diagonal in a Sentence

on a diagonal

idiom
  • Long boards installed on a diagonal from the room's walls.
    Kelly Allen, House Beautiful, 3 Mar. 2021
  • The station, well placed on a diagonal, has a nice presence along the St. Paul and Charles streets corridors.
    Jacques Kelly, baltimoresun.com, 14 Aug. 2021
  • An order of toast ($6) comes with one fat, cottony slice, cut on a diagonal bias.
    Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 May 2021
  • The hack works like this: Instead of placing your box with its edges parallel to the edges of the wrapping paper, put it on a diagonal in the middle of the piece of wrapping paper.
    Kelsey Hurwitz, Woman's Day, 17 Dec. 2019
  • Going the other way on a diagonal, make very shallow lines.
    Sheryl Julian, BostonGlobe.com, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Inside, checkerboard tiles set on a diagonal line the central hall, which accesses the main living areas and a set of stairs.
    Lauren Beale, Forbes, 9 Oct. 2022
  • Walking on a diagonal line across the site, the biologists collect at least five samples of soil in plastic bags.
    Jeff Wheelwright, Discover Magazine, 6 Aug. 2017
  • Cut crosswise on a diagonal into ½-inch-thick slices (broccoli should be cut into florets; pin onion slices with toothpicks to keep them from falling apart).
    Steven Raichlen New York Times, Star Tribune, 21 July 2021
  • This pattern is like herringbone, but instead of interlocking, boards are cut on a diagonal so their ends align.
    Kelly Allen, House Beautiful, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Gentileschi posed her protagonist on a diagonal, the curve of her arms and shoulders and her angled head a pair of spiraling oval shapes tipped back in space, destabilizing the figure.
    Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2022
  • Those cylinders are cut into chubby pieces, sliced thinly on a diagonal, or twisted into a cocoon shape that looks like two little balls stuck together.
    Kendra Vaculin, Bon Appétit, 10 Jan. 2022
  • While some of the dresses were worn horizontally or on a diagonal, revealing corset undergarments in neutral tones, one model walked with a fully upside-down dress, the hemline obscuring her face and her legs emerging from the sweetheart neckline.
    Jacqui Palumbo, CNN, 25 Jan. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'on a diagonal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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