Tuesday, July 23, 2013

sidle

sidle \SAHYD-l\, verb:

1. to move sideways or obliquely.
2. to edge along furtively.

noun:
1. a sidling movement.

I don't want to sidle up to the wrong man. Not that I'd really know how to sidle.
-- Alexander McCall Smith, The Lost Art of Gratitude, 2009
Turning his own back on the Bank of England, Dave would sidle down to the river, then idle over one of the bridges.
-- Will Self, The Book of Dave, 2008

Sidle is a backformation of the word sideling which means "sidelong or sideways; obliquely."

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