sidle

[Bailey]

si·dle (sdl)
v. si·dled, si·dling, si·dles
v.intr.
1. To move sideways: sidled through the narrow doorway.
2. To advance in an unobtrusive, furtive, or coy way: swindlers who sidle up to tourists.
v.tr.
To cause to move sideways: We sidled the canoe to the riverbank.
n.
1. An unobtrusive, furtive, or coy advance.
2. A sideways movement.



[Back-formation from sideling.]


sidling·ly adv.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

we just call it crabwalkin' you know when someone makes a big boo boo and tries to pretend it never happened by changing the subject or pointing out they meant something way different. A successful crabwalk is a thing of beauty and cannot be commented on [these are the rules] in the aftermath.

mark crabby Bailey

[Perry]

I've always liked the expression, to sidle on up to someone.

[gailr]

This word made me wonder about sidereal, a word to describe the seeming movement of the stars. But I find that sidle is derived from "Middle English, from Old English sIde" and sidereal from "Latin sIdereus, from sIdus, sIder-, constellation, star."

-gailr

the hypothesis is retrograde...