Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OB-LIQUE-LY, adv.

1. In a line deviating from a right line; not directly; not perpendicularly. Declining from the noon of day, / The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray. Pope.
2. Indirectly; by a side glance; by an allusion; not in the direct or plain meaning. His discourse tends obliquely to the detracting from others. Addison.