ˈsidewalk
Also side-walk, side walk.
[side n.1 23.]
1. A walk or path running parallel to a main or central one. rare—1.
| 1667 Davenant & Dryden Tempest i. ii, 'Tis composed of three walks of cypress-trees; each side-walk leads to a cave... The middle-walk is of great depth. |
2. A (raised) path for foot-passengers along the side of a street, road, etc.; a footway or pavement. Now chiefly
U.S.| 1739 C. Labelye Piers Westm. Bridge 69 The Side-walks for the Foot-passengers are..raised about a Foot above the Carriage-way. 1815 J. Adams Wks. (1856) X. 125 Walking in the streets of Philadelphia, I met, on the opposite side⁓walk, Colonel Joseph Lyman. 1824 F. Burney in Jrnls. & Lett. (1980) VIII. 525 The streets [of Trier] were dreadfully ill paved, without any side Walk. 1826 United Empire Loyalist (Toronto) 1 July 39/4 Some regulation with respect to the improvement of the sidewalks, may be considered as necessary. 1837 Hawthorne Twice-told T. ii, The side walks of the street..are immediately thronged with two long lines of people. 1883 Harper's Mag. Apr. 724/1 On the outside of the sidewalk were planted American elms. 1891 G. Meredith Let. 27 May (1970) II. 1030 The way to propitiate them [sc. reviewers] is to keep along the side-walks, out of the sun. 1936 D. Gascoyne Man's Life is this Meat 29 On the sidewalks houses eat the afternoon. 1951 R. Campbell Light on Dark Horse ii. 27 The sidewalk..was still unpaved in those days. 1966 G. W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Austral. & N.Z. viii. 172 Cities have footpaths, though pavement is also used and Aucklanders seem to be able to use side-walk as well. 1971 Rand Daily Mail 27 Mar. 6/4 Wait on the sidewalk after getting off a bus. 1977 ‘J. D. White’ Salzburg Affair xiii. 111 The sidewalks with their cheerful..tourists, street musicians, girls. |
3. Comb., as
sidewalk cafe,
sidewalk skate,
sidewalk song,
sidewalk tree;
sidewalk superintendent joc. (chiefly
U.S.), an idler who watches and gives unsolicited advice at construction works, road repairs, etc.;
sidewalk surfing slang (
orig. U.S.)
= skateboarding
vbl. n.; hence
sidewalk surfer.
| 1940 R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely viii. 54 The sidewalk café..was bright and cheerful inside, but the..tables outside under the striped awning were empty. 1979 P. Harcourt Sleep of Spies i. vii. 96 The week in Paris passed very quickly... We spent a lot of time..idling in sidewalk cafés. |
| 1925 Sears Catal. (ed. 150) 751 Improved extension sidewalk skates. 1977 Montgomery Ward Catal. Spring-Summer 509/1 Junior rink-style sidewalk skates. 1883 Century Mag. Oct. 929/2 Little sermons in rhyme that are sure to catch the ear and to become hackneyed as a sidewalk song. |
| 1940 Sun (Baltimore) 30 Mar. 20/7 The walk..is covered so that the sidewalk superintendents can meet in rainy weather. 1970 R. P. Warren Incarnations 46 Sidewalk superintendents turn now From their duties and at you stare. 1976 A. Cassorla Skateboarder's Bible 9 Weird-wheeling sidewalk surfers can be seen whipping over the blacktop from Reno to Rio de Janeiro. |
| 1965 National Observer (U.S.) 5 Apr. 12/1 Remember the hula hoop? The popularity attained by that hip-swinging fad in the late 1950s is fast being dwarfed by a new teen-age craze known as sidewalk surfing or skateboarding. 1899 Scribner's Mag. XXV. 58/2, I followed the shadows of the sidewalk-trees down to the next corner. |
Hence
ˈsidewalked a. or pa. pple., having, or provided with, sidewalks or foot-pavements.
| 1884 Harper's Mag. Mar. 516/2 There is..no sidewalked street. 1893 Home Mission N. York LXV. 593 Miles of streets have been opened, graded, planked, and sidewalked. |