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slant

(slănt)

v. slant·ed, slant·ing, slants

v.tr.

1. To give a direction other than perpendicular or horizontal to; make diagonal; cause to slope: She slants her letters from upper right to lower left.

2. To present so as to conform to a particular bias or appeal to a certain audience: The story was slanted in favor of the strikers.

v.intr.

To have or go in a direction other than perpendicular or horizontal; slope.

a. A line, plane, course, or direction that is other than perpendicular or horizontal; a slope.

b. A sloping thing or piece of ground.

2. Printing A virgule.

a. A personal point of view or opinion: an article with an unconventional slant.

b. A bias: an anti-religious slant.

4. Offensive Slang Used as a disparaging term for a person of East Asian birth or ancestry.

[Alteration of obsolete slent, from Middle English slenten, to fall aslant, perhaps of Scandinavian origin.]

slanting·ly adv.

Synonyms: slant, incline, lean¹, slope, tilt¹, tip²
These verbs mean to depart or cause to depart from true vertical or horizontal: rays of light slanting through the window; inclined her head toward the speaker; leaned against the railing; a driveway that slopes downhill; tilted his hat at a rakish angle; tipped her chair against the wall.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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