bias

From French biais (“way, angle, slant”), related to Old Occitan biais, of obscure origin.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbaɪəs/

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• Rhymes: -aɪəs

bias (countable and uncountable, plural biases or biasses)

1. (countable, uncountable) Inclination towards something; predisposition, partiality, prejudice, preference, predilection.
   • 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 4.

     nature has pointed out a mixed kind of life as most suitable to the human race, and secretly admonished them to allow none of these biasses to draw too much

   • John Locke

     Morality influences men's lives, and gives a bias to all their actions.

2. (countable, textiles) The diagonal line between warp and weft in a woven fabric.
3. (countable, textiles) A wedge-shaped piece of cloth taken out of a garment (such as the waist of a dress) to diminish its circumference.
4. (electronics) A voltage or current applied to an electronic device, such as a transistor electrode, to move its operating point to a desired part of its transfer function.
5. (statistics) The difference between the expectation of the sample estimator and the true population value, which reduces the representativeness of the estimator by systematically distorting it.
6. (sports) In the games of crown green bowls and lawn bowls: a weight added to one side of a bowl so that as it rolls, it will follow a curved rather than a straight path; the oblique line followed by such a bowl; the lopsided shape or structure of such a bowl. In lawn bowls, the curved course is caused only by the shape of the bowl. The use of weights is prohibited.[from 1560s]
   • Sir Walter Scott

     there is a concealed bias within the spheroid

7. (fandom slang) A person's favourite member of a K-pop band.

• bias tape
• on the bias

bias (third-person singular simple present biases or biasses, present participle biasing or biassing, simple past and past participle biased or biassed)

1. (transitive) To place bias upon; to influence.

   Our prejudices bias our views.

2. (electronics) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • On the ohmic side n⁺ is implanted to provide the ohmic contact to bias the detector. H. Dijkstra, J. Libby, Overview of silicon detectors, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 494 (2002) 86–93, p. 87.

bias (comparative more bias, superlative most bias)

1. Inclined to one side; swelled on one side.
   • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act IV, Scene 5,

     Thou, trumpet, there’s my purse.

     Now crack thy lungs, and split thy brazen pipe:

     Blow, villain, till thy sphered bias cheek

     Outswell the colic of puff’d Aquilon:

2. Cut slanting or diagonally, as cloth.

• (inclined to one side): biased

bias (not comparable)

1. In a slanting manner; crosswise; obliquely; diagonally.

   to cut cloth bias

• bias on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• ABIs, AIBs, IABs, IBSA, bais, basi-, isba

• bies

bias

1. third-person singular future relative of at·tá

bias

1. third-person singular future relative of benaid