a. Also 8–9 lapsided, 9 lobsided. [f. LOP sb.2 or v.2 + SIDE sb. + -ED2.] That lops or appears to lop or lean on or towards one side; having one side lower or smaller than the other. Orig. Naut. (of a ship): Disproportionately heavy on one side; unevenly balanced.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 27. You will certainly have the Misfortune of a lapsided Ship.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Lap-sided, the state of a ship, which is built in such a manner as to have one side heavier than the other.
1820. Praed, Surly Hall, 221. He drew me once … (’twas lopsided, And squinted worse than ever I did).
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, viii. An odd, lopsided, one-eyed kind of wooden building.
1878. D. Kemp, Man. Yacht & Boat Sailing, 356. Dict., Lob Sided, larger or heavier on one side than on the other.
1901. Athenæum, 10 Aug., 198/1. The church … was … lop-sided, as one aisle … was narrower than the other.
b. fig.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, I. x. 158. The sooner we get the balance [of classes] equal, the better; for its rather lopsided just now, no one can deny.
1868. Green, Lett., II. (1901), 200. The … article … is very lop-sided and unfair.
1891. F. W. Newman, Cdl. Newman, 11. So lobsided morality, if propounded in a Mormon Bible or by a Hottentot Potentate, would be spurned as self-confuted.
Hence Lopsidedly adv., Lop-sidedness.
1826. Examiner, 2 April, 1/1, note. The Book of the Church scarcely affords a more ridiculous instance of the lopsidedness of statement so peculiar to the religious partisan.
1857. The Era, 6 Dec., 10/4. How doth his body wabble and move lop-sidedly?
1875. Carpentry & Join., 76. When finished there is a degree of instability or lop-sidedness which should not exist.
1896. Nat. Observer, 21 March, 561/1. A turban … hanging lopsidedly over one ear.
