sideways.
Moving or directed toward one side.
Meaning & usage
Moving or directed toward one side.
Giving Mary a sideways glance, he said,[…].
He gave the ball a sideways kick.
Positioned 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.
Neither 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.
In conflict (with); not compatible (with).
He was constantly getting sideways with his boss till he got fired.
Where this word comes from
From side + -ways.
With a side to the front.
He builds houses sideways, with the front door on the side.
Towards one side.
A bishop moves only diagonally; a rook, only sideways, forward, and back.
He looked sideways at the new arrival, wondering who she was.
Askance; sidelong.
Neither upward nor downward.
The economy has been moving sideways for several months now.
Not 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.
Where this word comes from
From side + -ways.
plural of sideway
Where this word comes from
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Try it on your idea.
sideways has 8 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.