Word.ws English Dictionary

sidestep

/ˈsaɪdˌstɛp/

sidestep noun: a step to the side.

Noun

sidestep (plural sidesteps)

  1. A step to the side.
  2. A physical motion or metaphorical act to avoid or dodge something.

Verb

sidestep (third-person singular simple present sidesteps, present participle sidestepping, simple past and past participle sidestepped)

  1. (intransitive) To step to the side.
    • I […] knocked and waited. […] He sidestepped, and I went in.1955 October, Rex Stout, “Die Like a Dog”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, →ISBN, page 180
    • Kilmarnock ought to have taken the lead on the stroke of half-time when Hefferman set up Kroca and, although the defender neatly sidestepped his marker, he fired straight into the chest of Enckelman.2011 October 1, Clive Lindsay, “Kilmarnock 1 - 2 St Johnstone”, in BBC Sport
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To avoid or dodge.
    • They sidestepped the issue.
    • It was noticeable that he sidestepped questions about continuation south of Crewe, on the grounds that he must await the report of Sir Ivan Stedeford's Advisory Group.1960 November, “Talking of Trains: That engine change at Crewe”, in Trains Illustrated, page 641

sidestep meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

sidestep in Tamil

பக்க நடை

sidestep in Bengali

একপাশে সরে এড়িয়ে যাওয়া

sidestep in Malayalam

evade, avoid, dodge
ഒരുഭാഗത്തേക്ക് ഒഴിഞ്ഞുനിൽക്കുക, വഴി മാറുക, വഴിയൊഴിയുക, ഒഴിവാക്കുക, ഒഴിഞ്ഞുമാറുക, വെട്ടിച്ചുകടക്കുക

sidestep in Kannada

ಪಾರಾಗು, ಪಕ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ಸರಿದು ಏಟು ತಪ್ಪಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಬದಿಗೆ ಸರಿ

Examples of sidestep in a sentence

  • “You could’ve just texted,” I point out, sidestepping her to unlock Miles’ car.
  • Ohhh, a transparent sidestep and a shlurp all in one sentence.
  • In that game, Carlsen sidestepped the main line of the Berlin Defense with 4 d4, hoping to unsettle Karjakin.

All 12 example sentences with sidestep

Forms of sidestep

Noun
pluralsidesteps
Verb
third-person singular presentsidesteps
present participlesidestepping
past participlesidestepped
pastsidestepped

Plural of sidestep: sidesteps

Origin of sidestep

From side + step.

Words formed from sidestep

Questions about sidestep

What does sidestep mean?
Sidestep means a step to the side.
What is sidestep in Tamil?
Sidestep in Tamil is பக்க நடை. See Sidestep meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sidestep?
Sidestep can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sidestep?
Sidestep is pronounced /ˈsaɪdˌstɛp/.
What is the plural of sidestep?
The plural of sidestep is sidesteps.

Words near sidestep in the dictionary

  1. sidesplittingly
  2. sidestake
  3. sidestakes
  4. sidestall
  5. sidestalls
  6. sidestep
  7. sidestepped
  8. sidestepper
  9. sidesteppers
  10. sidestepping
  11. sidesteppings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sidestep (page history and authors); sidestep (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sidestep (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sidestep (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); sidestep (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

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

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