sidecast

sidecast verb: to eject waste material that has been excavated or dredged to the side, rather than hauling it away.

Verb

sidecast (third-person singular simple present sidecasts, present participle sidecasting, simple past and past participle sidecast or (common, but sometimes proscribed) sidecasted)

To eject waste material that has been excavated or dredged to the side, rather than hauling it away.
- The dragline sidecasts material into a 'wet' stockpile located on-shore, immediately adjacent to the excavation.1976, Barbers Point Harbor, Oahu: Environmental Impact Statement
- Areas where sidecasting would be done are typically steep.1997, Juneau Access Improvements: Environmental Impact Statement
To cast a fishing line at an angle of 90 degrees using a special type of reel that rotates on its rod.
- I bait his hook with a plump and squirmy shrimp. With one arm, he sidecasts between two spindly roots.2015, Ana Veciana-Suarez, Birthday Parties in Heaven, →ISBN

Noun

sidecast (countable and uncountable, plural sidecasts)

Debris left next to a construction site from sidecasting.
- In areas of moderate slopes, recontouring can be accomplished by salvaging sidecast deposited during road construction.1994, Lamefoot Mine Environmental Impact Statement, Supplement to the Kettle River Key Project Expansion
- The site does not conflict with the proposed road right-of-way, but could be indirectly impacted by sidecast or disturbance of hydrologic flow. Sidecast would impact the site by permanently disturbing habitat and/or eliminating plants.1997, Final Environmental Impact Statement: Umpqua National Forest (N.F.), Stewart Mining Operation
A mode of using a suction dredge that sidecasts the material that is dredged up using a pipeline to the bank or by jetting.
- Accordingly, alternative dredge plants were analyzed, including pipeline, hopper, and the conventional sidecast dredge.1979, Lockwoods Folly Inlet: Environmental Impact Statement, page 35
A type of reel with a spool that rotates on a fixed base through 90 degrees to allow sidecasting.
- When fishing for drummer off the rocks with a sidecast reel, have the drag set at about 50 per cent of the breaking strain to start with.2005, Gary Brown, Beach and Rock Fishing, →ISBN
- Giving the design even more of an Aussie edge, the name of the largest Australian manufacturer of sidecasts — Alvey — has become a generic title for this type of reel, just as Esky has come to mean insulated cooler.2010, Steve Starling, Fishing For Dummies, →ISBN
A calculation or figure that is listed in a table beside a drawing that gives a value which cannot be read directly from the drawing.
- The first sub-column is used as a factor column, the second for take-off figures, the third for extensions, the fourth for locations, and the fifth for sidecasts.1999, Paul K. Marsden, Basic Building Measurement, →ISBN, page 12
- Calculate the 'sidecasts' that are likely to be used, e.g. centre lines, floor to ceiling heights, room dimensions.2013, Sean D. C. Ostrowski, Measurement using the New Rules of Measurement, →ISBN

Examples of sidecast in a sentence

According to the record, this piece of equipment rides on tracks (similar to a bulldozer) rather than on wheels, and it sidecasts excavated material directly into a dump truck.2005, United States Environmental Protection Agency: Environmental Appeals Board, Environmental administrative decisions:
In contrast, tree growth has been found to be higher on displaced material such as berms and sidecasts compared with the harvested undisturbed soils.2006, Rattan Lal, Encyclopedia of Soil Science - Volume 2, →ISBN, page 1380:

Forms of sidecast

Verb
third-person singular present	sidecasts
present participle	sidecasting
past participle	sidecast
past	sidecast
past participle common error-unknown-tag proscribed sometimes	sidecasted
past common error-unknown-tag proscribed sometimes	sidecasted
alternative form	side-cast
alternative form	side cast
Noun
plural	sidecasts

Origin of sidecast

From side + cast.

Questions about sidecast

What does sidecast mean?: Sidecast means to eject waste material that has been excavated or dredged to the side, rather than hauling it away.
How do you use sidecast in a sentence?: According to the record, this piece of equipment rides on tracks (similar to a bulldozer) rather than on wheels, and it sidecasts excavated material directly into a dump truck.
What part of speech is sidecast?: Sidecast can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of sidecast?: The past tense of sidecast is sidecast.

Words near sidecast in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sidecast (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sidecast.wav.

Cite this entry: “sidecast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sidecast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.