sideswipen.
/ˈsʌɪdswʌɪp/, U.S. /ˈsaɪdˌswaɪp/ 1. Originally and chiefly U.S. A glancing blow from or on the side of something, esp. a motor vehicle or (in early use) a railway locomotive.In quot. 1857 apparently: a glancing blow against the sides of a railway track.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > impact > striking > [noun] > glancing blow
glacec1400
scuff1824
sideswipe1857
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > vehicular traffic > [noun] > collision or accident > glancing blow on the side
sideswipe1857
1857 S. Groves Let. 24 Jan. in Papers Contracts for Motive Power (Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road Company) 51 They [sc. ten-wheeled engines] generally make only one side swipe, wherein the eight-wheel make two.
1861 Cedar Falls (Iowa) Gaz. 25 Oct. Just as the latter gave the Herald a heavy side swipe on the mug with a strapped up india rubber overcoat.
1898 Railroad Telegrapher Mar. 258/1 There was a wreck at Bippus a few night ago. One engine gave another one a side swipe and put them ‘in the clear’.
1922 Power Wagon July 34/3 A heavy wood guard-rail to prevent denting of the body by side-swipes.
1964 D. Solomon Accidents on Main Rural Highways i. 2 Nearly half of all accident involvements were either rear-end collisions or same-direction sideswipes.
1977 Time 24 Jan. 2/3 (advt.) The ESV's have proved their life-saving value in head-on and rear-end collisions, side-swipes and roll-overs.
2000 J. G. Ballard Super-Cannes (2001) vi. 52 A sideswipe had scored the metal, stripping the chromium trim from the headlights to the passenger door.
2. Originally U.S. A passing critical remark about someone or something; an indirect rebuke or criticism. Frequently in to take a sideswipe at.
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the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > criticism > [noun] > indirect > instance of
sidestroke1611
by-wipe1641
by-fling1651
sidewipe1757
sidekick1844
by-quip1855
sidewiper1870
sideswipe1882
snipe1969
1882 Age (Indianapolis) 26 Aug. 4/3 If he would make such an argument as this just as a little side-swipe when he was talking about something else, what would he do if he was on temperance sure enough?
1924 R. Kipling Prophet & Country in Debits & Credits (1926) 193 A side-swipe at the practically non-existent birth-rate.
1943 K. A. Porter Let. 29 May (1990) iv. 267 I take occasion for a little side-swipe at the high-powered Hollywood aspects of this war.
1966 T. Hughes Let. 29 Dec. (2009) 265 To take a sideswipe at anybody in a pseudo display of critical integrity is dead against everything in me.
1988 H. David Fitzrovians (1989) i.12 It was chiefly an attack on the literary work of Rossetti, but inevitably it also took a few sideswipes at Swinburne.
2012 D. Pierce Long Apprenticeship viii. 192 At Sussex the philosophy tutor took a sideswipe at my interest in continental philosophy.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
sideswipev.
/ˈsʌɪdswʌɪp/, U.S. /ˈsaɪdˌswaɪp/ Originally and chiefly U.S.
1. transitive. Esp. of a motor vehicle or (in early use) a railway locomotive: to strike with a glancing blow on or with the side.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > vehicular traffic > [verb (transitive)] > crash a vehicle > in specific manner
sideswipe1891
wrap1950
rear-end1965
1891 News (Frederick, Maryland) 23 Dec. The Cincinnati express..side swiped a freight train at 1.55 a. m. at Sir John's Run.
1904 Philadelphia Evening Tel. 12 Nov. 16 The west-bound St. Louis Express, while pulling on to a siding, was sideswiped by the east-bound Pittsburg Limited.
1916 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 15 July 2/4 Five persons were injured..when a motor car..overturned on the boulevard, after sideswiping a stalled car.
1960 I. Cross Backward Sex iii. 66 The cup slid from one end of the tray to the other, sideswiping the teapot on the way.
1989 Aide Mag. Dec. 33/2 A trucker can't see a compact car alongside its right front fender and may sideswipe the car when changing lanes.
2005 Independent 24 Aug. 3/2 She started swerving her Mercedes and accidentally sideswiped a Daihatsu carrying a mother and her daughter.
2. transitive. In extended use.
a. To damage or destroy as if by a sideswipe.
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1912 Catal. Copyright Entries: Pt. 1, Group 1 (Libr. Congress Copyright Office) 9 668 The nonsensical U.S.A...by Stuart B. Stone. Defaced and side-swiped with numerous artistic perpetrations by H. Boylston Dummer.
1913 Fra Mar. p. xii. (advt.) The tea they total in a year's time would sideswipe the national debt.
1988 Munic. World (Ont.) May 120/2 Although this legislation is primarily aimed at Japan, it threatens to side swipe everyone.
2000 D. B. Henriques White Sharks Wall St. xiii. High energy prices had sideswiped the economy, afflicting it with the supposedly contradictory forces of inflation and stagnation.
b. To make a passing critical remark about; to take a sideswipe at (sideswipe n. 2).
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1939 G. Dexter Let. 30 Nov. in F. W. Gibson et al. Ottawa at War (1994) i. 18 King's press conference was extremely interesting... King deliberately took occasion to side swipe the British mission.
1967 I. Ehrenpreis Swift (1983) II. xi. 129 When Swift sideswipes the Dutch, an audible sharpness penetrates his note of velvet impartiality.
2015 Independent (Nexis) 18 Mar. Mr Miliband had fewer good gags, but took unseemly pleasure in sideswiping the Liberal Democrats, who had made a big and beneficial impact on today's events.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1857v.1891