Lopsided means heavier or lower on one side than the other. A lopsided grin, a lopsided load, lopsided and leaning.
It describes physical imbalance and unfairness with the same word — a lopsided contest is one nobody could lose. A lopsided smile is affectionate. Note that lop here is an old verb meaning to hang loosely, the same one in lop-eared, and has nothing to do with lopping branches.
1adjectivelopsidedHeavier or lower on one side than the other.
“The cake came out of the oven lopsided, so we covered it with extra cream.”
lopsided is a quality of imbalance.
Lop, in the old sense of hanging loosely, plus sided. The lop of lopping branches is a different word.
Built from
From lop#Etymology 1 (“to hang loosely”) + side + -ed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA