aslant

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word aslant. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word aslant, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say aslant in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word aslant you have here. The definition of the word aslant will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofaslant, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology

From Middle English aslant (at an angle, in a curve; from the side, deviously), from on slante; equivalent to a- +‎ slant.

Pronunciation

Adjective

aslant

  1. (archaic, literary) Slanting.
    Synonyms: askew, aslope, atilt, diagonal, oblique, slanted; nonorthogonal, unperpendicular
    Antonyms: orthogonal, perpendicular, nonoblique
    Near-synonym: askance
    • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “ 22.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. , (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 533:
      As for the manner and fashion of the cut [when pruning grapevines], it ought alwaies to be aslant, like a goats foot, that no drops of raine may settle and rest thereupon, but that euery shower may soon shoot off:
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page 94:
      But their manner of writing is very peculiar, being neither from the left to the right, like the Europeans; nor from the right to the left, like the Arabians; nor from up to down, like the Chinese; nor from down to up, like the Cascagians; but aslant from one Corner of the Paper to the other, like Ladies in England.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 81, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 400:
      Meantime everything in the Pequod was aslant. To cross to the other side of the deck was like walking up the steep gabled roof of a house.
    • 1961, Walker Percy, The Moviegoer, New York: Avon, published 1980, Part 3, Chapter 1, p. 107:
      Now she stands musing on the beach, leg locked, pelvis aslant, thumb and forefingers propped along the iliac crest and lightly, propped lightly as an athlete.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

aslant

  1. (archaic, literary) At a slant.
    Synonyms: aslope, atilt, diagonally, obliquely

Translations

Preposition

aslant

  1. (archaic, literary) Diagonally over or across.
    Synonyms: aslope, athwart, atilt
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
      That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.
    • 1816, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Zapolya, London: Rest Fenner, published 1817, Scene 1, p. 45:
      I oft have passed your cottage, and still prais’d
      Its beauty, and that trim orchard-plot, whose blossoms
      The gusts of April shower’d aslant its thatch.
    • 1979, Patrick White, The Twyborn Affair, Penguin, published 1981, Part 2, p. 209:
      But aslant this particular glass reclined a single, white, wintry rose, possibly the last rose ever, its invalid complexion infused with a delicate transcendent green.

Translations

Anagrams