sidetrackn.
/ˈsʌɪdtrak/, U.S. /ˈsaɪ(d)ˌtræk/ 1. Chiefly North American. A railway siding; a secondary track or branch line.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > track > siding
siding1825
sideling1828
sidetrack1828
sideline1831
passing place1841
shunt line1904
lay-by1906
1828 L. Lincoln in Rep. Board of Commissioners Railway Boston to Providence (Commonw. Mass.: Senate No. 4) 7 That one set of Tracks, with suitable offsets and short side Tracks, at equal distances on the road, will be sufficient for the convenient accommodation of the travel.
1835 Maine Farmer 24 July 198/1 One of the principle [sic] dealers here has offered to lay a side track from the road to his own storehouse.
1876 G. A. Crofutt Trans-continental Tourist 41 Waterloo is a small side-track station.
1881 Chicago Times 14 May The side-tracks of all the roads along nearly their entire lengths were filled with cars loaded with freight.
1908 Industr. World 21 Dec. 1505/1 Side tracks have been constructed to nine industries not heretofore reached.
1940 Railroad Mag. Apr. 50/2 Unlike real sidetracks, the derail ends abruptly on relatively flat trackless land instead of curving back onto the main line.
2014 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 24 Apr. 14/1 As it happens, you are standing next to a switch. If you pull it, the train will be diverted onto a side track.
2. A track or strip of land at either side of a road; a minor path or way alongside or leading off a main thoroughfare.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > track, trail, or path > [noun] > side
side path1683
sidetrack1834
by-track1836
1834 Genesee (Rochester, N.Y.) Farmer 8 Feb. 45/3 Drivers have been very willing to leave the middle of the road, and to get on the grassy side-tracks, close along the fences.
1892 Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 17 July 1 Side tracks are rough, and they're hard to walk, keep in the middle of the road.
1931 C. Aldin in S. Hunloke & C. Aldin Riding vi. 105 Trail riding..gives us a day's riding with a picnic, and teaches us where the side tracks and bypaths on a place like Exmoor lead to.
1966 ‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 113 Trooper Caldecott riding along the soft, silent side-tracks that led to the Sunday trading.
2006 Review (Rio Tinto Group) June 25/2 He..directed me to drive down the Lissadel station shire road—and take a newly bulldozed sidetrack on the left.
3. A diversion or distraction from a main issue or previously determined plan.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > not doing > abstaining or refraining from action > [noun] > avoiding an action or condition > turning aside from a course of action > causing
diversion1600
diverting1611
sidetrack1861
sidetracking1872
1861 O. W. Holmes Elsie Venner xvii. 180 That curious state which is so common in good ministers..in which they contrive to switch off their logical faculties on the narrow side-track of their technical dogmas.
1901 Congress. Rec. 34 iii. 2476/1 I do not propose to be side tracked by any Senator from the other side of the Chamber. I myself will decide when I will go on the side track.
1935 B. Malinowski Coral Gardens II. vi. v. 239 Man never runs on the sidetrack of magical verbiage.
1972 J. Philips Vanishing Senator (1973) iii. ii. 136 Couldn't you try rental agencies? It wouldn't be a side track for you, Inspector.
2015 D. G. Denery Devil Wins ii. 96 Descartes clearly considers the endeavor a bit of a sidetrack.
4. Esp. in the oil and gas industries: a borehole that branches from the upper part of an existing borehole, either to avoid an obstacle or to reach additional reserves. Frequently attributive.
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1919 Oil & Gas News 15 May 13/1 It is rumored that another pipe line is being surveyed including side tracks and so forth, and that this will be laid immediately in the Hell Creek section, with a pumping station at Airdale.
1955 Drilling & Production Pract. 1954 86/1 There were 20 successful side-tracks last year.
1988 Oil & Gas Jrnl. (Nexis) 23 May 28 Plans are to drill a sidetrack hole from a well that was plugged.
2004 Wired July 132/4 After monitoring data from the bottom section of the hole for two years, scientists will core four 250-meter ‘sidetracks’ to reach the target area.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
sidetrackv.
/ˈsʌɪdtrak/, U.S. /ˈsaɪ(d)ˌtræk/ Originally U.S.
1. Chiefly North American.
a. intransitive. Of a railway train: to run into a siding.
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society > travel > rail travel > [verb (intransitive)] > run into a siding
sidetrack1871
1871 S. R. Smith Romance & Humor of Road 19 We side-tracked at Canton, and while there the telegraph operator received orders to hold passenger for No. 20.
1888 Harper's Mag. Mar. 650 One train had side-tracked to await the train from the opposite direction.
1912 Railroad Men Dec. 62/2 Denunciations were more bitter when later on we sidetracked and waited for another train to pass us.
1955 W. H. Standley & A. A. Ageton Admiral Ambassador to Russia xx. 337 Our train must have had ‘Z’ priority, for we sidetracked for every freight and troop train we met.
1992 J. Harmon Radio Myst. & Adventure 67 The train sidetracks at the virtual ghost town of Bury Your Dead, Arizona.
b. transitive. To move (a railway train, part of a train, cargo, etc.) into a siding.In quot. 1880 in extended use, with punning reference to train n.2 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > place > removal or displacement > remove or displace [verb (transitive)] > set aside
defer1393
to lay asidec1405
to set aside (on side)1412
side?1840
sidetrack1872
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > sideways movement or a sideways movement > cause to move sideways [verb (transitive)] > move to the side or out of the way
sidetrack1872
society > travel > rail travel > [verb (transitive)] > direct or manage a railway engine > specific operations
work1835
shunt1845
flag1856
slip1866
whistle1869
sidetrack1872
signal1888
switch1891
target1893
highball1905
plunge1923
1872 Leeds Mercury 9 Jan. 6/2 A little digging and shovelling about the wheels of the freight train would clear it of snow so that it might be run ahead and then sidetracked.
1880 News & Press (Cimarron, New Mexico) 19 Feb. 4/3 Short skirts are now worn for dancing dresses, and the gentlemen are no longer obliged to wait for the ladies to side-track their trains before they can pass.
1881 Chicago Times 14 May 10/7 It [sc. the corn] has been side-tracked and kept in the sun and rain somewhere along the road.
1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 19 June 14/1 I saw several new locomotives which had been side-tracked and allowed to go to ruin.
1919 Railway Conductor Mar. 113/2 He tried to have the dispatcher sidetrack the passenger train.
1969 O. S. Nock Tri-ang Hornby Bk. Trains 11 A goods train had to be sidetracked to make way for a fast express.
2015 Richmond (Va.) Times Disp. (Nexis) 10 Jan. Our train was sidetracked several times along the way so the freight trains could keep to their schedules.
2.
a. transitive. To push or set aside; to cause (a person) to be distracted from an immediate or important issue; to divert (a project or debate) away from a central issue or previously determined plan.
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the world > space > direction > direct [verb (transitive)] > change the direction of
wrya1400
divert1548
wrench1582
break1600
deflect1615
deviate1660
wrest1759
sidetrack1887
the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > lack of concentration, distraction > distract [verb (transitive)] > from a purpose, etc.
withdraw1340
distractc1380
waive1390
wresta1400
to turn aside1535
avocate1543
detract1548
to turn off1573
take1574
swaya1593
to put out1616
to put off1631
sidetrack1887
to turn off1951
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > be unimportant [verb (transitive)] > make less important or unimportant > turn (something) aside from prominence
sidetrack1887
the world > action or operation > inaction > not doing > abstaining or refraining from action > abstain or refrain from (action) [verb (transitive)] > avoid or shun > turn aside from > cause to
writhea1400
wrya1400
reflecta1500
reverta1500
withstand1508
reversec1540
declinea1555
evert1569
deflecta1575
divert1609
bias1628
blank1640
avert1697
shunt1858
sidetrack1887
ride1908
1887 Scribner's Mag. Sept. 366/1 Mebbe them thar lieyers side-tracked him with their everlastin' queshtuns, an' ef so, he warn't so pow'ful much ter blame.
1889 Voice (N. York) 4 Apr. In the end, that course will side-track and defeat the reform.
1918 W. S. Churchill Let. 12 Jan. in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1977) IV. Compan. i. 231 Munitions are everywhere being side-tracked to the claims of food, of civil imports, of Allies, and of dollars.
1931 L. A. G. Strong Garden xxxv. 324 He'd be all the worse to deal with, if he saw he'd been sidetracked.
1970 C. James in D. Rubinstein & C. Stoneman Education for Democracy 157 Acknowledgement of special interests is vitally important in adolescence and should not be side-tracked into extra-curricular events.
2001 J. Le Fanu They don't know what's Wrong i. 14 The truth is then overlooked, as the doctor gets sidetracked by the red herring of a misleading diagnosis.
b. intransitive. To divert or deviate from a central issue or previously determined plan; to digress.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > copiousness > be copious [verb (intransitive)] > digress
overleapc1400
to cast, fet, fetch, go, take a compass?a1500
digress1530
traverse1530
decline?1543
square1567
rovea1575
deviate1638
to step aside1653
swerve1658
to sally out1660
transgress1662
to run off1687
canceleera1697
cantona1734
excurse1748
to travel out of the record1770
divagate1852
desult1872
sidetrack1893
1893 Advance (Chicago) 8 June The business of the minister is to preach the gospel, not..to side-track on great moral issues.
1923 Daily Mail 28 Feb. 6 He finds the theatre so pleasant and sure a way of reducing his inflated income that he rarely sidetracks to other methods of deflation.
1985 N. Amer. Rev. June 4/2 I didn't want to sidetrack into thinking about them [sc. paintings] when I was here seeing them.
2004 D. V. McCain & D. D. Tobey Facilitation Basics vi. 97 If they are finished and are sidetracking into conversations, [etc.].
3. transitive. Esp. in the oil and gas industries: to drill a borehole that branches from the upper part of (an existing borehole), either to avoid an obstacle or to reach additional reserves. Also intransitive. Cf. sidetrack n. 4.
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society > occupation and work > industry > drilling for oil or gas > drill for oil or gas [verb (transitive)] > other procedures
to fang a pump, (loosely) a well1819
to rack up1839
shootc1870
torpedo1873
pull1895
sidetrack1906
swab1916
stab1922
re-enter1937
rack1949
1906 N. M. Fenneman Oil Fields Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coastal Plain 41 It was necessary to side track in order to drill deeper.
1958 J. C. Reed Explor. Naval Petrol. Reserve No. 4 i. 133/1 By 26 October..the hole was at 6,490 feet. At 7,154 feet the hole was sidetracked.
1987 J. Leecraft Dict. Petroleum Terms 138/2 Sidetrack,..to drill around broken pipe or casing that has become lodged permanently in the hole, using a whipstock, turbodrill, or other mud motor.
2008 Oil & Gas Jrnl. (Nexis) 12 May 37 Sources said several of the..‘unsuccessful’ exploratory wells may be on the edge of potentially productive structures and may be sidetracked later.
Derivatives
ˈsidetracked adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > not doing > abstaining or refraining from action > [adjective] > turning aside from a course of action > turned aside
sidetracked1885
1885 Puck (N.Y.) 26 Aug. 402/3 A pretty story about a pair of birds who build their nest on top of the smoke-stack of a side-tracked locomotive.
1894 48th Ann. Rep. Amer. Missionary Assoc. 10 They are but part of ourselves—a side-tracked section of the Anglo-Saxon race.
1971 W. Stegner Angle of Repose (1972) iv. ii. 198 It finally crawled between lines of side-tracked boxcars and died with a hiss at the Denver platform.
1996 New Yorker 21 Oct. 160/3 It was a sidetracked town then, with abandoned factories and vacant stores.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1828
v.1871