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bias - What does it mean?

Definition of 'bias'

English

Noun

  • (countable|uncountable) inclination towards something; predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection
  • * 1748 . David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. ยง 4.
    • nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biasses to draw too much
  • * John Locke
    • Morality influences men's lives, and gives a bias to all their actions.
  • (countable|textiles) the diagonal line between warp and weft in a woven fabric
  • (countable|textiles) A wedge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (such as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.
  • (electronics) a voltage or current applied for example to a transistor electrode
  • (statistics) the difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it
  • (sports) In the game of crown green bowls: a weight added to one side of a bowl so that as it rolls, it will follow a curved rather than a straight path; the oblique line followed by such a bowl; the lopsided shape or structure of such a bowl.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • there is a concealed bias within the spheroid

    Derived terms

    * bias tape

    Verb

  • To place bias upon; to influence.
    • Our prejudices bias our views.

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Inclined to one side; swelled on one side.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • Cut slanting or diagonally, as cloth.

    • Adverb

    (-)
  • In a slanting manner; crosswise; obliquely; diagonally.
    • to cut cloth bias

    Anagrams

    * ----

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