sidle
Syllables: sid·le/ˈsaɪdl/US/ˈsaɪdəl/
sidle verb: to (cause something to) move sideways.
Verb
sidle (third-person singular simple present sidles, present participle sidling, simple past and past participle sidled)
- 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; [...]1836, [Catherine Gore], The Diary of a Désennuyée. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Published by Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 176–177
- 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.1842, A. Lawson, “131. The Achievements of the Horse.”, in The Modern Farrier; or, The Art of Preserving the Health and Curing the Diseases of Horses, Dogs, Oxen, Cows, Sheep, and Swine. […], 25th...
- 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, [...]1842, Charles Dickens, “Worcester. The Connecticut River. Hartford. New Haven. To New York.”, in American Notes for General Circulation. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, pages...
- 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.1853 July, “Niagara”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume VII, number XXVIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, […], →OCLC, page 290, column 2
Noun
sidle (plural sidles)
- A sideways movement.
- [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.2015, Meredith Castile, “America”, in Drivers License (Object Lessons), New York, N.Y.; London: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 1
- A furtive advance.
- 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.1855 July 4, Walt Whitman, “[Song of Myself]”, in Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [James and Andrew Rome], →OCLC, page 55
Proper noun capitalized: Sidle
Sidle (plural Sidles)
- A surname.
sidle meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
sidle in Urdu
- ترچھی چال, دبک کر چلنا
sidle in Malayalam
- sneak, creep, slink
- പാത്തും പതുങ്ങിയും നീങ്ങുക, ഒളിച്ചു കടക്കുക, പതുങ്ങിക്കയറുക, പരുങ്ങി നോക്കുക, പാത്തും പതുങ്ങിയും കടന്നുപോവുക, ഒളിച്ചുമാറുക
sidle in Kannada
- ತಿರುಗಾಡು, ಓರೆಯಾಗಿ ನಡೆ, ನುಣುಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳು
Examples of sidle in a sentence
- 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.2011, Charles M[arion] Russell, “Range Horses”, in Stephen [Vincent] Brennan, editor, The Best Cowboy Stories Ever Told, New York, N.Y....
- 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.1877 March, “[Humorous Department.] The Barrel Organ.”, in Belford’s Monthly Magazine. A Magazine of Literature and Art, volume I, Toronto...
- One day he sidles up to a group, listens to the conversation for a moment, and actually puts in a remark.1914 April, Eric H. May, “The Metamorphosis of a ‘Fusser’”, in Paul Sykes, editor, Vox Lycei: Official Organ of the Ottawa Collegiate...
- As the moon sidles up / Must she sidle up, / As trips the scared moon / Away must she trip, [...]1934, William Butler Yeats, “[Supernatural Songs] He and She”, in The King of the Great Clock Tower, Commentaries and Poems, New York...
Forms of sidle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | sidles |
| present participle | sidling |
| past participle | sidled |
| past | sidled |
| Noun | |
| plural | sidles |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Sidles |
Origin of sidle
The verb is from side + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly a back-formation from sideling (“in a sidelong direction; askew, obliquely”, adverb), treating that word as the present participle of sidle. The noun is derived from the verb.
Variant of Siddall.
Words formed from sidle
Words that rhyme with sidle
Questions about sidle
- What does sidle mean?
- Sidle means to (cause something to) move sideways.
- What is sidle in Urdu?
- Sidle in Urdu is ترچھی چال, دبک کر چلنا. See Sidle meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use sidle in a sentence?
- 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.
- What part of speech is sidle?
- Sidle can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sidle?
- Sidle is pronounced /ˈsaɪdl/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of sidle?
- The past tense of sidle is sidled.
Words near sidle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sidle (page history and authors); Sidle (page history and authors); sidle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sidle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); sidle (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: En-uk-sidle.oga.
Cite this entry: “sidle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sidle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.