Word.ws English Dictionary

sideshoot

sideshoot noun: a branch or offshoot on the side of a plant's stem.

Noun

sideshoot (plural sideshoots)

  1. A branch or offshoot on the side of a plant's stem.
    • […] when their stems are hard and ripe, heel A small strip of bark torn from the main stem when a sideshoot is pulled off to make a (heel) cutting.2002, Reader's Digest all-season guide to gardening: late spring, Reader's Digest Association, →ISBN, page 6
    • […] the sideshoots grow instead of the main stem, with each sideshoot producing more sideshoots as soon as a flower truss develops.2006, Clevely, A. M., The allotment book: a practical guide to creating and enjoying your own perfect plot, Collins, →ISBN, page 97

Verb

sideshoot (third-person singular simple present sideshoots, present participle sideshooting, simple past and past participle sideshooted)

  1. To prune sideshoots from a plant.
    • Tall varieties need to be sideshooted and ‘stopped’ in midsummer. They will produce anything from three to six trusses depending on the area. In dry weather they will need heavy watering (see above).1984, Larkcom, Joy, The salad garden, Windward, →ISBN, page 96
    • Train outdoor tomatoes, tying them to their supports and sideshooting if necessary. Many outdoor varieties are grown as bushes that do not need sideshooting.1993, Courtier, Jane, The gardening year, Ward Lock, page 42

Forms of sideshoot

Noun
pluralsideshoots
Verb
third-person singular presentsideshoots
present participlesideshooting
past participlesideshooted
pastsideshooted

Origin of sideshoot

From side + shoot.

Questions about sideshoot

What does sideshoot mean?
Sideshoot means a branch or offshoot on the side of a plant's stem.
What part of speech is sideshoot?
Sideshoot can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of sideshoot?
The plural of sideshoot is sideshoots.

Words near sideshoot in the dictionary

  1. sideseams
  2. sideshadow
  3. sideshadowed
  4. sideshadowing
  5. sideshadows
  6. sideshoot
  7. sideshooted
  8. sideshooting
  9. sideshoots
  10. sideshow
  11. sideshow alley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sideshoot (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sideshoot.wav.

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