All 3 Uses of
bias
in
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- And she held that what her conscience had decided for her when her mind was unbiassed ought not to be overruled now.†
Chpt 4 *unbiassed = without a personal preference; or without any tendency to move in a particular direction"Editor's Notes"This is more commonly spelled, unbiased. The prefix "un-" in unbiassed means not and reverses the meaning of biassed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- They were not worldly young fellows, but fraternizing with dairy-folk would have struck unpleasantly upon their biased niceness, apart from their views of the match.†
Chpt 4biased = created a personal preference; or creates a tendency to move in a particular direction
- The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line.†
Chpt 1
Definitions:
-
(1)
(bias) a personal preference -- especially a prejudice that prevents objective consideration
or:
any tendency to move in a particular direction -- such as a car that tends to want to swerve toward the right -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Specialized meanings of bias include:- statistics: any of several errors that distort results
- textiles: a line or fold that is diagonal relative to the sides or grain of the fabric
- electronics: a steady-state current that is forced through an electronic device