skew-whiffadj.adv.

1754 Scots Mag. July 337/2 Behind, with a coach-horse short dock, cut your hair; Stick a flower before, scew-whiff, with an air.

1839 W. Holloway Gen. Dict. Provincialisms (new ed.) 154/1 Skew-whift, adj. (Askew, from Skef, Belg. oblique; and perhaps Whiffed, blown.) Awry.

1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northants. Words II. 239 Skew-whiff, awry, aslant. ‘It's all skew-whiff.’ Probably blown on one side by a whiff or puff.

1882 G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk. Skew-wiff,..adv. awry; irregular; zigzag.

1895 J. T. Clegg Stories, Sketches, & Rhymes in Rochdale Dial. 228 Her judgment's getten thrut skew-wift.

1899 Shetland News 20 May 7/2 I hed ta geng skewquieff.

1935 A. P. Herbert What a Word! iv. 101 Go on cackling..until the orator has to stop and ask you why you cackle. Then tell him. He won't get Frankenstein skew-whiff again.

1946 D. L. Sayers Unpop. Opinions 59 When Neptune shouldered Britain out of the sea, he did not make a neat engineering job of it. Characteristically, Britain came up skew-wiff, with one edge thick and hard and the other soft and thin, like a slice of wedding-cake.

1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren iii. 47 If a boy's cap is on skew-whiff: ‘Are you wearing that cap or just walking underneath it?’

1959 N.Z. Listener 12 June 20/3 A breaker turned the bow skew-wiff.

1974 J. Cleary Peter's Pence iii. 82 Our plans seem to have gone a bit skew-wiff, don't they? That's the trouble with the Irish.

1977 Lancashire Life Feb. 53/4 Thi tie's put on skew-wiff.