sidekick
Americannoun
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sidekicks
plural
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a close friend.
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a confederate or assistant.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sidekick
Explanation
A sidekick is a buddy who comes with you on your adventures. If you’re a superhero, your sidekick helps you fight crime. Electra Woman’s sidekick was the teenage Dyna Girl, and in the ‘70s they defeated villains on TV. A sidekick might be a work assistant, a best friend, or even a devoted dog that follows you to school every day. Sometimes this word signifies an imbalance of power, though; if you say, “This is my sidekick, Sarah," it implies that Sarah has less authority than you do. The origin of this word is unknown, but we do know that it appeared after the terms side-pal and side-partner fell out of fashion.
Vocabulary lists containing sidekick
Superhero Lexicon
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New Kid
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Comic Book Day
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Melanie Sykes became the new overarching voice of the show, taking over from Black's trusted sidekick, "Our Graham" Skidmore.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
That same year, Porter Wagoner—known for his flashy suits and towering pompadour—hired her as his sidekick and duet partner for his syndicated show and touring company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
Brendan Hunt, the actor who plays Lasso’s loyal sidekick Coach Beard in the series, can’t prove the show is responsible for that growth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
Who, then, was the sidekick in that relationship?
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
This was probably the one time a pigeon sidekick was useful.
From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi
Wacky animal sidekicks once felt vibrant in a holistic world of artifice; here, a goggle-eyed rooster just looks diseased.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
In “Predator: Badlands,” that involved giving an ugly monster emotional vulnerability and a PG-13 adventure with a couple sidekicks, including a chatty android played by Elle Fanning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
They’re like Boris and Natasha, if Boris and Natasha had gay sidekicks whose equally unsurprising side plot would’ve made a more thorny and altogether insightful critique of contemporary social politics.
From Salon ● Jan. 31, 2025
Can imperfect sidekicks and second-fiddlers like Camelot’s court jester and Sir Palomides, the Saracen knight, save the realm when Arthur reveals himself as all too mortal?
From Seattle Times ● May 14, 2024
Cha-Cha asked the two sidekicks when they entered.
From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
