sidle

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To (cause something to) move sideways.

   • [F]rom the circle of delighted auditors listening to the gentillesses of the pink cockatoo, who was sidling on his stand in the sunshine, a whole party of the Beresfords caught sight of me, and in a minute I was surrounded; [...]
   • You could drive a band of hosses up the steepest kind of hill but nobody that I ever knowed could drive a bunch straight down (that goes with cows, too)—they'd sidle it every time.
2. 2

   In the intransitive sense often followed by up

   In the intransitive sense often followed by up: to (cause something to) advance in a coy, furtive, or unobtrusive manner.

   • There was one little prim old lady, of very smiling and good-humoured appearance, who came sidling up to me from the end of a long passage, [...]
   • A small lad, with a large head and faded yellow hair, sidles up to you, and says something about "Ing'n work," or "Cur'osities," or "Cam'ra 'bscura," or "Guide." You give some sharp, quick answer; the small boy collapses and vanishes.
   • A sharper sidleth up to him, / "Why bettest thou not?" saith he. / For a moment's space the stranger's face / Was a wondrous thing to see.
3. 3

   An act of sidling.

   • [I]n this mythic America, we fly along in the fast lane, placing bets against flashing lights in the rearview mirror, against the dreaded sidle into the gravel and the voice at the window demanding our license.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      A surname.

The neighborhood

• neighborside
• neighborsideling
• neighborsidling
• neighborsidelong
• neighborsideward
• neighborsideways
• neighborsidewise
• neighborsiding
• neighborsidlingly
• neighborcrablike