Word of the Day

: March 4, 2022

askew

adjective uh-SKYOO

What It Means

Askew means "out of line" or "not straight."

// Sam noticed the picture hanging on the wall was askew so she straightened it.

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askew in Context

"Papers were askew, someone had helped themselves to a snack in the kitchen and the suspect's prints were discovered in the fireplace. Worse yet, the culprit, a squirrel, was still in the house." — CBC News (Canada), 22 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?

Askew was formed simply by attaching the prefix a- (meaning "in [such] a state or condition") to skew. The latter comes from Anglo-French eschiver, meaning "to escape or avoid."