sidle — English Dictionary

Verb

1. To (cause something to) move sideways.

   Usage

   • also
   • Transitive or intransitive
   • Figurative

   Examples

   More examples (3)

   [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; [...]

   The mare never moved; but after immense weight had been placed on both, the horse began to sidle, and before the last bag could be put on him, he sunk on his knees; it was put on the mare, and she bore it, never moving her posture until she was unloaded.

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

   Usage

   • also
   • Transitive or intransitive
   • Figurative

   Examples

   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, [...]

   More examples (1)

   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.

   More examples (6)

   One day he sidles up to a group, listens to the conversation for a moment, and actually puts in a remark. "I beg your pardon!" says one of the girls politely who has not heard his modest effort at conversation. For a moment Alexander remains rooted to the ground, he stammers out something unintelligible, the whole group turns and looks at him; this completes his confusion, he turns and sidles back to his seat, his face as hot as can be, and remains lost in a Latin grammer^([sic – meaning grammar]) for at least half an hour.

   As the moon sidles up / Must she sidle up, / As trips the scared moon / Away must she trip, [...]

   At an early point in these exchanges I had started to sidle to the door, and I now sidled through it, rather like a diffident crab on some sandy beach trying to avoid the attentions of a child with a spade.

   Marta's gander was a magnificent snow-white bird: the object of terror to foxes, children and dogs. She had reared him as a gosling; and whenever he approached, he would let fly a low contented burble and sidle his neck around her thighs.

   Ava tried to sidle away, but she was semi-trapped between the corner of the stage and a French Club sign-up table.

   A man I'd never spoken to before who worked in the IT department sidled behind me as I danced and put his hands on my waist where the cut-outs were.

Noun

1. An act of sidling. A sideways movement.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   [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.

2. An act of sidling. A furtive advance.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Listener up there! Here you … what have you to confide in me? / Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening, / Talk honestly, for no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.

Verb

1. move unobtrusively or furtively

   Broader terms

   move

   Examples

   The young man began to sidle near the pretty girl sitting on the log

2. move sideways

   Synonyms

   sashay

   Broader terms

   move