All 6 Uses
askew
in
All the King's Men
(Auto-generated)
- I saw the Boss in shirt sleeves, cocked back in an easy chair with his sock-feet propped on a straight chair in front of him, and his tie askew, and his eyes bugging out and a forefinger out in the air in front of him as though it were the stock of a bull whip.†
Chpt 3askew = not straight; or not right
- The shade of a window was up and I looked in where a heavy, bald man in shirt sleeves sat at a table in what is called a "dinette" and slumped above a plate like a sack propped in a chair, while a child stood at his elbow, plucking at him, and a woman in a slack colorless dress and hair stringing down brought a steaming saucepan from the stove, for Poppa had come home late as usual with his bunion hurting, and the rent was past due and Johnnie needed shoes and Susie's report card wasn't any good and Susie stood at his elbow, plucking at him feebly, and staring at him with her imbecilic eyes and breathing through her adenoids, and the Maxfield Parrish picture was askew on the wall with its bl†
Chpt 6
- Perhaps for the reason that if you are in a place like that which looks like a cardboard stage set and is so damned q-u-a-i-n-t, whatever you say will sound as though it had been written by some lop-haired, swivel-hipped fellow who lived in one of those cardboard houses in an upstairs apartment (overlooking the patio—Oh, Jesus, yes, overlooking the patio) and wrote a play for the Little Theater which began with the heroine sauntering into a dim street between rows of cardboard houses and leaning against an askew lamppost to light a cigarette.†
Chpt 6
- She was in love with a rather tall, somewhat gangly, slightly stooped youth of twenty-one, with a bony horse face, a big almost askew hook of a nose, dark, unkempt hair, dark eyes (not burning and deep like the eyes of Cass Mastern, but frequently vague or veiled, bloodshot in the mornings, brightening only with excitement), big hands that worked and twisted slowly on his lap, plucking at each other, and twisted big feet that were inclined to shamble—a youth not beautiful, not brilliant, not industrious, not good, not kind, not even ambitious, given to excesses and confusions, thrown between melancholy and random violence, between the cold mire and the hot flame, between curiosity and apathy†
Chpt 7
- And I would fondle that hooked, askew, cartilaginous monstrosity, pretending great pain but proud as Punch of the thing simply because she had put her fingers on it.†
Chpt 7
- Then, with the faces in place and only a little askew, they crowded around the Boss and shook his hand.†
Chpt 9 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(askew) not straight (not in proper alignment)
or:
(when used figuratively) not right, or not as planned -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Less commonly, askew is used in the idiom, looked at me askew. It means looked at in a puzzled manner. You could think of it as someone tilting their head to see the person from a different angle.
Rarely, Askew can also refer to someone's first name.