side

Less common meanings

15. 15
    nouncountable

    The border of a road, field, room, or similar space, or the strip running along that border, away from the center.

    Wildflowers grow thickly along the side of the field, where the plow never reaches.

    Spectators lined both sides of the street to watch the parade go by.

    UsageOn the side of the road, along the side of a field; traffic pulls to the side.

    Similaredge, border

    Note

    Edge is one of the word's oldest jobs: its Germanic ancestor covered flank, edge and shore alike. It takes a spread of prepositions: on the side of the road, along the side of the field, by the side of the path, and to the side when traffic pulls over. Whichever one is used, the phrase points away from the middle, which is why spectators line the sides of a street. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The edge meaning is ancient: side descends from a Germanic ancestor meaning flank, edge and shore. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    batters in inningnouncountable or uncountable

    The group of batters a particular pitcher faces during a single inning.

    She retired the side on just nine pitches.

    Facing the heart of the lineup, he still set the side down in order.

    Note

    Baseball uses it mostly as the object of a verb of putting batters out. The best-known phrase is strike out the side, as a pitcher does who fans three straight hitters. It means that all three outs that inning came on strikes, even if other batters reached base. The phrase counts an inning's work by the pitcher, not by the opposing team. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • A pitcher who retires three consecutive hitters on strikes to complete a half-inning strikes out the side. en.wikipedia.org
    • The phrase also applies when all three outs are strikeouts but other batters reach base; three consecutive strikeouts without a baserunner constitute striking out the side in order. mlb.com
    • The phrase describes a pitcher's accomplishment during a defensive half-inning. en.wikipedia.org
17. 17
    cover wallsverbtransitive

    To cover the exterior walls of a building with siding.

    Local builders side most homes here before the first snow.

    The contractor sided the garage in galvanized steel.

    Similarclad, face, sheathe

18. 18
    recordnouncountable or uncountable

    A recorded piece of music; a record, particularly in jazz.

    The quartet laid down three sides in a single afternoon session.

    Collectors still hunt for that rare bebop side.

    Similarrecord, recording, track

    Note

    A jazz musician's and record collector's word, used as a count noun for recorded performances. Players make sides, and the plural measures a career on disc. James Lincoln Collier writes that Bechet, after leaving Ellington's group, made only a few sides just as jazz records were beginning to flood the market. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • James Lincoln Collier writes that Bechet left Ellington's group and subsequently made few recordings while jazz records were beginning to flood the market. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    serve withverbtransitive

    To provide a dish with an accompaniment served alongside it.

    At the corner diner, every burger comes sided with a pile of crispy fries and a dill pickle.

    She sided the grilled fish with a bright lemon salad.

    UsageMostly passive on menus: chicken sided with greens. In speech, served with is more natural.

    Similarpair, accompany, serve

20. 20
    spinnouncountable or uncountable

    Spin applied to a ball by striking it off-center, causing it to curve or change its rebound; sidespin.

    He applied side to bring the cue ball off the cushion at a sharper angle.

    Without any side, the ball ran dead straight into the pocket.

    Similarspin, english

    Note

    Cue-sport players use it as a mass noun, with no article: you put side on the ball, or a bit of side, much as you would add a touch of spin. Sidespin and english name the same thing. Side is the clipped form used at the table, as when a player needs a bit of side to reach the pink. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Sidespin and english denote the same spin in cue sports. en.wikipedia.org
    • Side is a shortened form of side spin. en.wikipedia.org
21. 21
    verbintransitive

    To lean or tilt over onto one side.

    Similarlean, tilt, tip, list

22. 22
    audition scriptnouncountable or uncountable

    A written monologue or portion of a scene given to an actor to read at an audition.

    Her agent emailed a two-page side the night before the callback, and she knew it cold by morning.

    The casting office sent the sides on Friday, so she spent the weekend learning the scene.

    Similarexcerpt, script

    Note

    Theater and casting jargon, nearly always plural: actors receive their sides before an audition. Viola Spolin, in a handbook edited by Carol Sills, describes sides that give one or two cue words followed by an actor's full speech. Dave Kost notes that audition sides are rarely longer than two pages, so a performer can prepare without the whole script. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The passage is by Viola Spolin; Carol Bleackley Sills edited the updated handbook. nupress.northwestern.edu
    • Spolin's description specifies one or two cue words followed by the actor's full speech. en.wiktionary.org
    • Dave Kost says audition sides are rarely longer than two pages. en.wiktionary.org
23. 23
    conceitnoundateduncountable

    A conceited bearing, or a show of importance that has no real justification.

    The young clerk put on a great deal of side after his promotion.

    Theobald posed as the most ardent lover imaginable, but, to use the vulgarism for the moment in fashion, it was all “side.”

    1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh

    Similarpretension, conceit, airs, pomposity

    Oppositemodesty, humility

    Note

    Slang from Kipling's and Butler's day that now reads as dated. The narrator of Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh (1903) calls it "the vulgarism for the moment in fashion." People put on side (Frank Richards, 1930) or carry the side (Kipling, 1888). It is uncountable, so a modest person shows no side, never "a side." Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • This slang sense existed in Kipling's and Butler's time. gutenberg.org
    • Samuel Butler wrote The Way of All Flesh, first published in 1903. archive.org
    • The wording is accurate, but it belongs to the fictional narrator, Edward Overton. en.wikipedia.org
    • Frank Richards used putting on side in 1930. en.wiktionary.org
    • Kipling's story contains carry the side. kiplingsociety.co.uk
    • The Education of Otis Yeere first appeared in 1888. kiplingsociety.co.uk
24. 24
    TV channelnoundatedAustraliaBritishIrelandcountable or uncountable

    A television channel, usually one other than the channel currently being watched.

    She turned over to the other side to catch the evening news.

    Nothing decent was on the other side either, so he switched the set off.

    Similarchannel, station

    Note

    A relic of two-channel television. With only one alternative, the station you were not watching was simply the other side. It survives almost entirely in that phrase, as in "see what's on the other side." It now sounds dated in British, Irish and Australian speech, since viewers have far more than one channel to switch to. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • The television sense developed when there were only two channels, making the alternative channel 'the other side'. en.wiktionary.org
25. 25
    adjectivearchaicNorthern EnglandScotlandUK

    Wide or large; or long and pendulous, hanging low and trailing; far-reaching.

    Hiz gooun had syde sleeuez dooun to midlegge, slit from the shooulder too the hand, & lined with white cotten.

    1575, Robert Laneham, “The auncient Minstrell described”

    Note

    A different word that happens to share the spelling. Old English sīd meant "wide, broad, ample," not "flank," though both words go back to one Indo-European root. Its home was dress. The 1575 Laneham letter describes a gown with "syde sleeuez dooun to midlegge," and Shakespeare's Much Ado lists "side sleeves." It now lives on as an archaic dialect word of Northern England and Scotland. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • The adjective is distinct from the noun meaning flank, despite their identical modern spelling. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English sīd meant wide, broad or ample, rather than flank. en.wiktionary.org
    • The adjective and the flank noun share an Indo-European ancestor through Germanic *sīdaz. en.wiktionary.org
    • The adjective was used of clothing, including the quoted description of a gown. en.wiktionary.org
    • The letter containing the description is dated 1575. en.wikisource.org
    • Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing contains the phrase side sleeves. folgerdigitaltexts.org
26. 26
    nouncountable

    One of the inclined surfaces that make up a hill, mountain, or valley.

    The trail zigzags up the eastern side of the mountain through thick pine forest.

    Terraced vineyards cover the sunny sides of the valley.

    UsageOften the eastern side, the sunny side. Hillside and mountainside say it in one word.

    Similarslope, flank

    Note

    Here a hill is pictured as a body: the old flank meaning, still alive in the side of the torso, is laid onto the land. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Side historically meant the flank of the body. en.wiktionary.org
    • Applying side to terrain reflects the metaphorical transfer of body terminology to landscape features. asnc.cam.ac.uk
27. 27
    nouncountable

    One of the two playable faces of a record, or one of the two halves of a cassette, including the music recorded there.

    Side one of the album opens with a slow piano ballad.

    He recorded the radio countdown onto both sides of a blank cassette.

    UsageNumbered or lettered: side one, side A. The extra track on a single is its B-side.

    Note

    Sides are numbered or lettered: side one and side two, side A and side B. The letters gave English A-side and B-side for the songs themselves, the B-side being the lesser track on a single, and turning the record over gave flip side, now said of the other aspect of anything. In older jazz talk a side is the recording itself, as in the "record" meaning. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Record sides can be numbered one and two. en.wikipedia.org
    • The A/B labels developed into names for the recordings themselves, with the B-side being the secondary track. en.wikipedia.org
    • Flip side originated with the other side of a record and acquired a figurative meaning. en.wiktionary.org
    • Side has been used for a recording, especially in jazz. en.wiktionary.org
28. 28
    nounslang

    A man who, in sex with other men, prefers not to engage in anal sex.
29. 29
    noun

    A troupe of morris dancers that rehearses and performs as a unit.
30. 30
    verb

    To work a timber or rib to a specified thickness by trimming its sides.
31. 31
    verb

    To clear away, tidy, or put in order.
32. 32
    adverbdialectalUK

    Widely; over a wide area; far.
33. 33
    nounobsolete

    In older mathematics, the root of a number, especially a square root, pictured as the edge of a square.

    And 9 is said to be the Square, 27 the Cube of 3, which is call'd the Side of 9 and 27, &c.

    1723, Edward Wells, The Young Gentleman's Arithmetick
34. 34
    verbobsolete

    To be next to something, or positioned on the side that faces it.

    His blind eye that syded Paridell.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
35. 35
    verbobsolete

    To go well with something, or to match it as a pair.
36. 36
    adjectivedialectalScotland

    Far away or remote.