Word.ws English Dictionary

sidling

sidling is the alternative spelling of sideling.

sidling is the present participle and gerund of sidle.

Meaning of sideling

Adjective

sideling (comparative more sideling, superlative most sideling)

  1. directed toward one side
  2. inclined; having an inclination
    Synonyms:
    sloping

See all 4 meanings of sideling

Meaning of sidle

Verb

sidle (third-person singular simple present sidles, present participle sidling, simple past and past participle sidled)

  1. (also, ambitransitive, figuratively) 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
  2. (also, ambitransitive, figuratively) 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...

See all 5 meanings of sidle

Noun

sidling (plural sidlings)

  1. The motion of one who sidles.
    • Starring and shying at straws, with sidlings and plungings.1926, Rudyard Kipling, The Centaurs

Forms of sidling

pluralsidlings

Origin of sidling

Cognate with the above (form of sidle, from Middle English sidlyng, from which also directly sidling, above).

Questions about sidling

What does sidling mean?
Sidling means the motion of one who sidles.
What is sidling the alternative spelling of?
Sidling is the alternative spelling of sideling.
What part of speech is sidling?
Sidling is a noun.
What is the plural of sidling?
The plural of sidling is sidlings.

Words near sidling in the dictionary

  1. sidler
  2. sidlers
  3. sidles
  4. Sidlesham
  5. Sidley
  6. sidling
  7. sidlingly
  8. sidlings
  9. Sidlow
  10. Sidman
  11. Sidmans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sidling (page history and authors); sideling (page history and authors); sidle (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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Cite this entry: “sidling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sidling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.