Forms: 6–7 biace, (? 6 byess), 6–8 byas, (7 biais, biase, biaz), 7–8 biass, byass, 6– bias. Pl. biases; also 6 bias, 6–9 biasses, 7 byasses. [a. F. biais, in 14th c. ‘oblique, obliquity,’ = Pr. biais (cf. OCat. biais, mod. biaise, biase; also Sardinian biasciu, It. s-biescio awry, in Piem. sbias); of unknown origin. The conjecture of Diez that it is:—L. bifax, bifacem, explained by Isidore as duos habens obtutus ‘looking two ways,’ is rejected by later Romanic scholars as phonetically untenable. Originally an adjective, as in Pr. via biayssa cross or oblique road; but early used as a sb. in French, so that the first quotable example in Eng. is of the subst. use. The latter became a technical term at the game of bowls, whence come all the later uses of the word. With pl. biases, cf. atlases, crocuses.]
A. adj. (Sense 1 is original; 1 b and 2 appear to be derived from senses of the sb.)
† 1. Slanting, oblique. Bias line: (in early geometry) a diagonal or hypotenuse. [Cf. OF. (Oresme, 14th c.) une figure quarrée et le dyametre qui la traverse biais.] Obs. Cf. BIAS-WISE, -WAYS.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., II. xxxii. By the Bias line, I meane that lyne, whiche in any square figure dooth runne from corner to corner.
1601. Holland, Pliny, 953 (R.). Her oblique and byass declination.
1688. R. Holme, Acad. Arm., II. 351. Some shells are crooked and byas.
b. spec. in dress (cf. B 1): Cut across the texture, slanting.
1883. Daily News, 22 Sept., 3/3. A wide bias band of wall-flower velvet.
1884. Girl’s Own Paper, Aug., 681/1. Plain skirts, trimmed with flat bias bands.
2. ‘Swelled as the bowl on the biased side’ J.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. v. 8. Thy sphered Bias cheeke.
B. sb.
1. An oblique or slanting line; cf. A 1. Now app. only in the spec. sense of a wedge-shaped piece or gore, cut obliquely to the texture of a woven fabric. On the bias: diagonally, across the texture.
1530. Palsgr., 198/1. Byas of an hose, bias.
1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 513. Take me a napkyn folte, With the byas of a bolte.
c. 1570. Ld. Semple, Three Taverners, ix. Now gif ye … shape it precyslie, The ellwand wald be grit & lang, Gif the byess be wyde, gar lay it on side.
1880. Melbourne Bulletin, 29 Oct., 5/1. The clothing … may not be cut on the bias.
1884. West. Daily Press, 2 June, 7/2. All skirts are formed of four portions:… the breadth each side, straight at the front edge, cut with a curved bias at the upper of the back edge.
2. A term at bowls, applied alike to: The construction or form of the bowl imparting an oblique motion, the oblique line in which it runs, and the kind of impetus given to cause it to run obliquely. Thus a bowl is said ‘to have a wide or narrow bias,’ ‘to run with a great’ or ‘little bias’; the player ‘gives it more’ or ‘less bias’ in throwing it.
It is difficult to decide in which sense exactly bias was here first used. A priori we think of the oblique line of motion: this is favored also by the quotations under C. and BIAS-WISE; yet early quotations here point rather to the oblique one-sided structure or shape of the bowl. Formerly bias was given by loading the bowls on one side with lead, and this itself was sometimes called the bias; they are now made of very heavy wood, teak or ebony, and the bias given entirely by their shape, which is that of a sphere slightly flattened on one side and protuberant on the other, as if composed of the halves of an oblate and a prolate spheroid.
1570. trans. Life 70 Abps. Canterbury, B v., marg. As you haue sett youre bias, so runneth your bowle.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. v. 25. Well, forward, forward, thus the bowle should run, And not vnluckily against the Bias.
1643. T. Goodwin, Wks. (1861), III. 492. A bowl … is swayed by the bias, and lead that is in it.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Serm., ii. 71. If it [the Bowl] be made with a Byas, that may decline it a little from a straight line.
1692. South, 12 Serm. (1697), I. 444. A bowl may lie still for all its Byass.
1710. Norris, Chr. Prudence, i. 22. The Bowl will run, not as the Hand directs, but as the Bias leads.
1728. Pope, Dunciad, I. 170. O thou, of business the directing soul, To human heads like byass to the bowl.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Bias of a bowl is a piece of lead put into one side, to load and make it incline towards that side.
1822. Hazlitt, Men & Manners, Ser. II. iv. (1869), 89. The skittle-player bends his body to give a bias to the bowl he has already delivered from his hand.
1851. A. W. Hare, Serm., viii. I. 133. Just as a bowl with a bias, if you try to send it straight, the longer it rolls, the further it will swerve.
1864. Athenæum, No. 1920. 209/1. A bias that should reach the jack.
b. Figurative senses taken from the game of bowls.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xix. (1811), 205. Her bosome sleake as Paris plaster, Helde vp two balles of alabaster, Eche byas [i.e., nipple] was a little cherrie.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. iv. 5. ’Twill make me thinke the World is full of Rubs, And that my fortune runnes against the Byas.
1581. Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 66. To finde a matter quite mistaken, and goe downe the hill agaynst the byas, in the mouth of some such men.
1618. Mynshul, Ess. Prison (1638), 17. To bee a bowle for every alley, and run into every company, proves thy mind to have no bias.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Wisd. Man’s Self (Arb.), 185. Which set a Bias vpon the Bowle, of their owne Petty Ends.
1714. C. Johnson, Country Lasses, II. ii. Joy shall be the jack, pleasure the bias, and we’ll rowl after happiness to the last moment of life.
3. transf. An inclination, leaning, tendency, bent; a preponderating disposition or propensity; predisposition towards; predilection; prejudice.
1572. trans. Buchanan’s Detect. Mary, in Love-lett. (1824), 125. She cometh to her own bias, and openly showeth her own natural conditions.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., I. 166/1. They cease their crueltie for a time, but within a-while after fall to their bloudie bias.
1620. Quarles, Jonah (1638), 38. To change the byas of her crooked wayes.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., II. § 1. Though … the byas of present practise wheel another way.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 361. The law will not suppose a possibility of biass or favour in a judge.
1827. Hare, Guesses (1859), 13. A proof of our natural bias to evil.
1829. Southey, Inscript., xlv. My intellectual life received betimes The bias it hath kept.
1830. Sir J. Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., III. i. (1851), 241. If the bricks … had all a certain leaning or bias in one direction out of the perpendicular.
1878. Lecky, England in 18th. C., II. vi. 179. They could have no possible bias in favour of the Irish.
† 4. Set course in any direction, ordinary ‘way.’ From or out of the bias: out of the way. To put out of or off one’s bias: to put out, disconcert, confuse, put into disorder. Obs.
1588. Marprel. Epist. (1843), 51. Marke what wil be the issue … if you still keep your olde byas.
1600. Dekker, Gentle Craft, Wks. 1873, I. 30. Well Master all this is from the bias, doe you remember the Shippe.
c. 1619. R. Jones, Serm., in Phenix (1708), II. 478. Such strange opinions as would turn the whole world out of bias.
1642. Howell, For. Trav., 142. Here it will not be much out of the byas, to insert a few verses.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 272. There is no putting him out of his bias. He is a regular piece of clock-work.
1752. Hume, Pol. Disc., ii. 30. Superstition, which throws the Government off its bias.
1799. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Nil Adm., Wks. 1812, IV. 266. And turn even Bishops off from Wisdom’s bias.
5. A swaying influence, impulse or weight; ‘any thing which turns a man to a particular course, or gives the direction to his measures’ (J.)
1587. Turberville, Trag. T. (1837), 206. That to the end he might the maid Unto his bias bring.
1595. Shaks., John, II. 577. This vile drawing byas, This sway of motion, this commoditie.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. State, IV. iv. 254. In his prime he [Wolsey] was the bias of the Christian world, drawing the bowl thereof to what side he pleased.
a. 1659. Cleveland, Wks. (1687), 82. In what a puzzling Neutrality is the poor Soul, that moves between two such ponderous Biasses!
1660. W. Secker, Nonsuch Prof., 430. The love of God is the byas of a Volunteer.
1705. Stanhope, Paraphr., II. 196. The Bribery and Byass of Sense and Flesh.
1851. Gladstone, Gleanings, IV. xxxix. 28. He could not possibly be under any bias.
† b. Center of gravity (as that which determines the direction of motion in a falling body). rare.
1674. Petty, Disc. bef. R. Soc., 126. I suppose in every atom … two poles in its superficies, and a Central point within its substance, which I call its Byas.
C. adv. [Cf. on the bias, F. en biais, de biais.]
1. Obliquely, aslope, athwart. Obs. exc. of dress.
1575. Laneham, Lett. (1871), 25. Wold run hiz race byas among the thickest of the throng.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iv. (1641), 33/1. That rich Girdle … Which God gave Nature … To weare it biaz, buckled over-thwart-her.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXVII. iv. (R.). The leaves be … chamfered or chanelled biais all along.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 349. It should be … cut byas, as wedges are.
1656. Finett, For. Ambass., 32. Placed … on the King’s right hand, not right out but byas forward.
1875. Napheys, Phys. Life Woman, 202. A body-case of strong linen, cut bias.
† 2. fig. Off the straight, awry, wrong, amiss. To run bias on, to: to fall foul of, attack. Obs.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, i. 47. His tongue runs byas on affaires.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 15. Euery action that hath gone before … Triall did draw Bias and thwart, not answering the ayme.
1618. Bolton, Florus (1636), 264. Metellus … who always ranne bias to the mighty, detracted Pompey.
1633. G. Herbert, Constancie, vii. in Temple, 64. When the wide world runnes bias.
D. Comb. bias-drawing vbl. sb., a turning awry or from the truth; bias-eyed a., oblique-eyed. Also BIASWISE, q.v.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. v. 169. Faith and troth, Strain’d purely from all hollow bias drawing.
1883. Glasgow Wkly. Her., 12 May, 2/7. The bias-eyed son of the sun [Chinaman] manipulated the gummy mass.
