Noah Webster
Oblique
OBLI'QUE,
1. In a line deviating from a right line; not directly; not perpendicularly.
Declining from the noon of day, the sun obliquely shoots his burning ray.
2. Indirectly; by a side glance; by an allusion; not in the direct or plain meaning.
His discourse tends obliquely to the detracting from others.