sideways

comparative more sideways · superlative most sideways

1. Moving or directed toward one side.

   He gave the ball a sideways kick.

   1 more example

   Giving Mary a sideways glance, he said,[…].

2. informalPositioned sideways (with a side to the front).

   There was a stack of papers in front of each seat at the table, but each stack was sideways.

3. informalNeither moving upward nor moving downward.

   Once we get out of this sideways economy, our figures will more accurately reflect what we're truly capable of.

4. informalusuallyIn conflict (with); not compatible (with).

   He was constantly getting sideways with his boss till he got fired.

comparative more sideways · superlative most sideways

1. With a side to the front.

   He builds houses sideways, with the front door on the side.

2. Towards one side.

   He looked sideways at the new arrival, wondering who she was.

   2 more examples

   A bishop moves only diagonally; a rook, only sideways, forward, and back.

   “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron;[…]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

   1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

3. Askance; sidelong.
4. informalNeither upward nor downward.

   The economy has been moving sideways for several months now.

5. UScolloquialNot as planned; towards a worse outcome.

   We realized the project could go sideways very quickly if we didn't get the sales and marketing people on our side.

   2 more examples

   As we walked deeper into the darkness, we both knew this could go sideways in a heartbeat. We were sitting ducks. Birds on a wire. Canaries in a coalmine.

   2011, D. P. Lyle, chapter 78, in Hot Lights, Cold Steel, →ISBN, page 340

   It feels like the probability of something going sideways here is higher.

   2023 May 20, Tabby Kinder, George Hammond, quoting Ivan Matkovic, “So long, San Francisco”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

   Synonyms: south

1. pluralplural of sideway

   And he was just taking byways and sideways, travelling in the peripheries of civilization, yeah?

   2002, Joseph Brodsky, Cynthia L. Haven, Joseph Brodsky: Conversations, page 169

   2 more examples

   In time our way merged into a throng of cars flowing here and there on the highways and sideways of the north side of Los Angeles.

   2006, David Haskell, Roundabout the USA, page 103

   Expansion of economic activities resulted in the construction of a so—called fishbone pattern of roads and sideways.

   2013, Pitou van Dijck, The Impact of the IIRSA Road Infrastructure Programme on Amazonia, page 81