English

Alternative forms

• skew whiff
• skewiff
• squewiff

Adjective

skew-whiff ‎(comparative more skew-whiff, superlative most skew-whiff)

1. (Britain, Australia, colloquial) Askew; lopsided, not straight.

   I hung up that picture, but it looks skew-whiff to me.

   • 1971, Blackwood′s Magazine, Volume 309, page 497,

     “ […] I′ve just been looking up at them and it seems to me that Cassiopeia′s Chair is a bit more skew-whiff than usual. Either it′s been moved or we′re heading the wrong way.”

   • 1984, Punch, Volume 286, Part 1, page 87,

     I nudged him to remember what was surely the best day of his life—when he had walked serenely through the milling throng, moist-eyed, and sheepish grin more skew-whiff than ever, in the starling-shrieking, jabbering cockpit of that tumbledown stadium at Delhi on Christmas Eve in 1981.

   • 1997, University of Tasmania, Australian Literary Studies, Volume 18, page 199,

     His genially skew-whiff posture for the camera may be intended to deflect easy attempts to get an angle on him.

   • 1999, Alan Wall, The Lightning Cage, page 4,

     Johnson replied, with a shake of his massive head so vigorous that his ill-fitting wig became even more skew-whiff: […] .

   • 2005, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, Bloomsbury Publishing, paperback edition, 401,

     He wasn′t wearing shoes or a jacket and tie, and his front stud was undone, so that the white collar stood up skew-whiff.

   • 2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Meg Worby, Lindsay Brown, Paul Harding, Central Australia: Adelaide to Darwin Lonely Planet, page 112,

     In a gorgeous old stone-fronted house at a skew-whiff angle to the road, this main-street, mainstream eatery serves big breakfasts, pizzas, burgers, lasagne, focaccias, bruschetta and salads.

   • 2009, Justine Vaisutis, Australia, Lonely Planet, page 530,

     The Cat is a large, comfortable space with a great atmosphere and skew-whiff 1950s decor (a Melbourne trademark).

Related terms

• squiffy