Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OB-LIQUE, a. [obli'ke; L. obliquus; Fr. oblique.]

1. Deviating from a right line; not direct; not perpendicular; not parallel; aslant. It has a direction oblique to that of the former motion. Cheyne. An oblique angle is either acute or obtuse; any angle except a right one. An oblique line is one that, falling on another, makes oblique angles with it. Oblique planes, in dialing, are those which decline from the zenith, or incline toward the horizon. Oblique sailing, is when a ship sails upon some rhomb between the four cardinal points, making an oblique angle with the meridian. Encyc.
2. Indirect; by a side glance; as, an oblique hint. Shak.
3. In grammar, an oblique case is any case except the nominative.