adjective
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directed or inclining to one side
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indirect or oblique
adverb
Etymology
Origin of sidelong
Explanation
A sidelong glance or facial expression is directed toward one side, and it's also usually skeptical or suspicious. If your brother promises to clean the whole house, you might react with a sidelong look at him. Sidelong can be used as an adjective or an adverb, so you can give your friend a sidelong glance when she starts reading the wrong paragraph aloud in English class, and you can also look sidelong at the kid beside you who's asleep and snoring at his desk. The adverb is older, and it comes from the Middle English sidlyng.
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.
This month’s celebration will be hosted by the photographer John Edmonds, whose exhibition, “A Sidelong Glance,” features incisive portraits of Black Americans with traditional cultural objects, on view at the museum through Sept. 26.
From New York Times • Aug. 5, 2021
I know her ways, her slightest wink, So well; and to my hand she'll come, Sidelong, for food or a caress, Just like a loving human thing.
From Poems — Volume 1 by Meredith, George
Sad, pathetic is their stare, Yet it hath impatience too, And, methinks at times they cast Sidelong glances at the witch.
From Atta Troll by Heine, Heinrich
"That's—where he died," said Nash, and suddenly sank Sidelong across a bench, bowing his head Between his hands ...
From Collected Poems Volume Two by Noyes, Alfred
Sidelong, I saw the orchestra leader's baton go up.
From The Million-Dollar Suitcase by MacGowan, Alice
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.
