Sideswipe

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A blow with the side of something, such as the side of car that is changing lanes incautiously.
  2. 2
    a glancing blow from or on the side of something (especially motor vehicles) wordnet
  3. 3
    A catty or sarcastic remark. figuratively

    "Calvin Harris's number-ten hit Acceptable in the 80s is both a wry sideswipe and a celebration of the scene;[…]"

Verb
  1. 1
    To give a blow with the side, as to strike with the side of a car when turning. transitive

    "As he turns left from Central into Jackson he nearly sideswipes a milk truck idling yards out from the kerb."

  2. 2
    strike from the side wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
appulsebangbang intobruntbrushbrush by

Example

More examples

"Calvin Harris's number-ten hit Acceptable in the 80s is both a wry sideswipe and a celebration of the scene;[…]"

Etymology

From side + swipe.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.