obliquity

noun obliquities

1. countable, uncountable The quality of being oblique in direction, deviating from the horizontal or vertical; or the angle created by such a deviation. The Planet Earth, so stedfast though she seem, / Insensibly three different Motions move? / Which else to several Sphears thou must ascribe, / Mov'd contrarie with thwart obliquities

   Similar: obliqueness

2. broadly, countable, uncountable, of a planet Axial tilt. Calculating by spherical trigonometry, and assuming the same obliquity, I obtain 3 dundas and 40 pulas for the ascensional arc, giving a difference in time of 3 pulas, or about one of our minutes; an error so small, that even were the Indian astronomer aware of its existence he would disregard it, s
3. countable, uncountable Mental or moral deviation or perversity; immorality. Habitually living with the elements and knowing little more of the land than as a beach, or, rather, that portion of the terraqueous globe providentially set apart for dance-houses, doxies and tapsters, in short what sailors call a "fiddlers'-green," his simple nature remained unsophisticated by tho

   Similar: degeneracy, depravity, perversion, baseness, corruption, defilement, degradation, depravation, depravedness, impurity, iniquity, lewdity

4. countable, uncountable The quality of being obscure, oftentimes willfully, sometimes as an exercise in euphemism. That spiked my gun. I could not say anything. I was entirely out of verbal obliquities; to go further would be to lie, and that I would not do; so I simply sat still and suffered,—sat mutely and resignedly there, and sizzled,—for I was being slowly fried to death in my own blushes.

   Similar: obscurity