BIAS • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Bias

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/bˈaɪəs/ Listen

noun

Bias n. (pl. biases)

A weight on the side of the ball used in the game of bowls, or a tendency imparted to the ball, which turns it from a straight line. "Being ignorant that there is a concealed bias within the spheroid, which will... swerve away."

A leaning of the mind; propensity or prepossession toward an object or view, not leaving the mind indifferent; bent; inclination. "Strong love is a bias upon the thoughts." "Morality influences men's lives, and gives a bias to all their actions."

A wedge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.

A slant; a diagonal; as, to cut cloth on the bias.

Synonyms: Prepossession; prejudice; partiality; inclination. See Bent.

verb

Bias v. t. (past & past part. biased; pres. part. biasing) To incline to one side; to give a particular direction to; to influence; to prejudice; to prepossess. "Me it had not biased in the one direction, nor should it have biased any just critic in the counter direction."

adjective

Bias adj.

Inclined to one side; swelled on one side. (Obs.)

Cut slanting or diagonally, as cloth.

adverb

Bias adv. In a slanting manner; crosswise; obliquely; diagonally; as, to cut cloth bias.

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Etymology of 'Bias'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bias" Quotes from Famous Books

... both these points and apparently determined to remain wrong. Of course, it might have been a mere error of judgment, but at the same time he had no evidence whatever against her, and it seemed to suggest a curious bias. And finally, I didn't like the ...

— Simon • J. Storer Clouston

... part of an historian, who is absolutely destitute of political principles, to pass judgment. Facts have crept into this history, it is true, but no one could regret it more than the author; yet there has been no bias or political prejudice shown, other than that reflected from the historical sources ...

— Comic History of the United States • Bill Nye

... esteem you, and how grateful we are for the inestimable service you have rendered us, and for your kindness and attention while we were on board your ship; but you must acknowledge that I ought not as a father to allow these considerations to bias me when my daughter's future prospects are concerned. Now you will understand, my brother and I had agreed that she should marry her cousin Henri, although she herself is not aware of this arrangement. My astonishment was nevertheless ...

— Charley Laurel - A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land • W. H. G. Kingston

... means, raise out of the slough of inanity to their own intellectual level, it was particularly strange, and it was even particularly affecting, to see this crowd of earnest faces, whose honesty in the main no competent observer free from bias could doubt, so ...

— Hard Times • Charles Dickens*

... table sacred to litter; and from a wild welter of books, pipes, papers, golf-balls, hats, cigar-boxes, dog-collars, switches, cartridges and other sediment, he extracted a large gilt-edged card and studied it without enthusiasm or bias. ...

— Driftwood Spars - The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who - Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life • Percival Christopher Wren

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