Ob·lique a.  [Written also oblike.]
 1. Not erect or perpendicular; neither parallel to, nor at right angles from, the base; slanting; inclined.
    It has a direction oblique to that of the former motion.   --Cheyne.
 2. Not straightforward; indirect; obscure; hence, disingenuous; underhand; perverse; sinister.
 The love we bear our friends . . .
 Hath in it certain oblique ends.   --Drayton.
    This mode of oblique research, when a more direct one is denied, we find to be the only one in our power.   --De Quincey.
 Then would be closed the restless, oblique eye.
 That looks for evil, like a treacherous spy.   --Wordworth.
 3. Not direct in descent; not following the line of father and son; collateral.
    His natural affection in a direct line was strong, in an oblique but weak.   --Baker.
 Oblique angle, Oblique ascension, etc. See under Angle, Ascension, etc.
 Oblique arch Arch., an arch whose jambs are not at right angles with the face, and whose intrados is in consequence askew.
 Oblique bridge, a skew bridge. See under Bridge, n.
 Oblique case Gram., any case except the nominative. See Case, n.
 Oblique circle Projection, a circle whose plane is oblique to the axis of the primitive plane.
 Oblique fire Mil., a fire the direction of which is not perpendicular to the line fired at.
 Oblique flank Fort., that part of the curtain whence the fire of the opposite bastion may be discovered. --Wilhelm.
 Oblique leaf. Bot. (a) A leaf twisted or inclined from the normal position. (b) A leaf having one half different from the other.
 Oblique line Geom., a line that, meeting or tending to meet another, makes oblique angles with it.
 Oblique motion Mus., a kind of motion or progression in which one part ascends or descends, while the other prolongs or repeats the same tone, as in the accompanying example.
 Oblique muscle Anat., a muscle acting in a direction oblique to the mesial plane of the body, or to the associated muscles; -- applied especially to two muscles of the eyeball.
 Oblique narration. See Oblique speech.
 Oblique planes Dialing, planes which decline from the zenith, or incline toward the horizon.
 Oblique sailing Naut., the movement of a ship when she sails upon some rhumb between the four cardinal points, making an oblique angle with the meridian.
 Oblique speech Rhet., speech which is quoted indirectly, or in a different person from that employed by the original speaker.
 Oblique sphere Astron. & Geog., the celestial or terrestrial sphere when its axis is oblique to the horizon of the place; or as it appears to an observer at any point on the earth except the poles and the equator.
 Oblique step Mil., a step in marching, by which the soldier, while advancing, gradually takes ground to the right or left at an angle of about 25°.  It is not now practiced. --Wilhelm.
 Oblique system of coordinates Anal. Geom., a system in which the coordinate axes are oblique to each other.
 Sphere n.
 1. Geom. A body or space contained under a single surface, which in every part is equally distant from a point within called its center.
 2. Hence, any globe or globular body, especially a celestial one, as the sun, a planet, or the earth.
 Of celestial bodies, first the sun,
 A mighty sphere, he framed.   --Milton.
 3. Astron. (a) The apparent surface of the heavens, which is assumed to be spherical and everywhere equally distant, in which the heavenly bodies appear to have their places, and on which the various astronomical circles, as of right ascension and declination, the equator, ecliptic, etc., are conceived to be drawn; an ideal geometrical sphere, with the astronomical and geographical circles in their proper positions on it. (b) In ancient astronomy, one of the concentric and eccentric revolving spherical transparent shells in which the stars, sun, planets, and moon were supposed to be set, and by which they were carried, in such a manner as to produce their apparent motions.
 4. Logic The extension of a general conception, or the totality of the individuals or species to which it may be applied.
 5. Circuit or range of action, knowledge, or influence; compass; province; employment; place of existence.
    To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in 't.   --Shak.
    Taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.   --Hawthorne.
 Each in his hidden sphere of joy or woe
 Our hermit spirits dwell.   --Keble.
 6. Rank; order of society; social positions.
 7. An orbit, as of a star; a socket. [R.]
 Armillary sphere, Crystalline sphere, Oblique sphere,. See under Armillary, Crystalline,.
 Doctrine of the sphere, applications of the principles of spherical trigonometry to the properties and relations of the circles of the sphere, and the problems connected with them, in astronomy and geography, as to the latitudes and longitudes, distance and bearing, of places on the earth, and the right ascension and declination, altitude and azimuth, rising and setting, etc., of the heavenly bodies; spherical geometry.
 Music of the spheres. See under Music.
 Syn: -- Globe; orb; circle. See Globe.