shoehorn vs skew

shoehorn

verb
  • To force some current event into alignment with some (usually unconnected) agenda, especially when it is fallacious. 

  • To use a shoehorn. 

  • To force (something) into (a tight space); to squeeze (something) into (a schedule, etc); to exert great effort to insert or include (something); to include (something) despite potent reasons not to. 

noun
  • A smooth tool that assists in putting the foot into a shoe, by sliding the heel in after the toe is in place. This reduces discomfort and damage to the back of the shoe. By slipping it into the back of the shoe behind the heel, the user prevents the heel from squashing down the back of the shoe and causing difficulty; instead the heel slides down the smooth shoehorn, which then comes out easily once the foot is in place. 

  • Anything by which a transaction is facilitated; a medium. 

skew

verb
  • To bias or distort in a particular direction. 

  • To look at obliquely; to squint; hence, to look slightingly or suspiciously. 

  • To cause (a distribution) to be asymmetrical. 

  • To move obliquely; to move sideways, to sidle; to lie obliquely. 

  • To jump back or sideways in fear or surprise; to shy, as a horse. 

  • To hurl or throw. 

  • To form or shape in an oblique way; to cause to take an oblique position. 

noun
  • A squint or sidelong glance. 

  • A state of asymmetry in a distribution; skewness. 

  • The coping of a gable. 

  • A phenomenon in synchronous digital circuit systems (such as computers) in which the same sourced clock signal arrives at different components at different times. 

  • Something that has an oblique or slanted position. 

  • A kind of wooden vane or cowl in a chimney which revolves according to the direction of the wind and prevents smoking. 

  • An oblique or sideways movement. 

  • A piece of rock lying in a slanting position and tapering upwards which overhangs a working-place in a mine and is liable to fall. 

  • A stone at the foot of the slope of a gable, the offset of a buttress, etc., cut with a sloping surface and with a check to receive the coping stones and retain them in place; a skew-corbel. 

  • A bias or distortion in a particular direction. 

adj
  • Of a distribution: asymmetrical about its mean. 

  • Neither parallel nor perpendicular to a certain line; askew. 

  • Of two lines in three-dimensional space: neither intersecting nor parallel. 

adv
  • Askew, obliquely; awry. 

How often have the words shoehorn and skew occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )