side street

American  

noun

1. a street leading away from a main street; an unimportant street or one carrying but little traffic.

---

side street British  

noun

1. a minor or unimportant street, esp one leading off a main thoroughfare

---

side street Idioms  

1. A minor thoroughfare that carries little traffic, as in Our favorite hotel is on a quiet little side street. The side in this idiom means “off to one side, away from the main street.” [c. 1600] Also see back street.

---

Etymology

Origin of side street

First recorded in 1610–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

side street

“We are going to be looking around, and we are staying with the group, not going on a side street, and not gather unnecessarily.”

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 11, 2026

The shrine was tucked away down a side street on the edge of the city - a low-roofed room crowded with carved figures.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2025

Up another side street, near a vacant commercial business, Shiela McPheely is waiting to collect her sisters from their holiday in Albufeira in Portugal.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2025

His book is, on one level, a relic of a lost moment — a time before the Iranian revolution, when Afghanistan was a place a young traveler could "wander down a dreamy side street."

From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2025

Jinjoo could hear them from her house, which was on a side street several blocks from the main thoroughfare.

From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh