ˈside-arm, a. (and adv.)
[side n.1 26.]
1. Performed or delivered with a swing of the arm extended sideways, esp. in Baseball. Cf. round-arm a. and adv.
| 1908 Baseball Mag. June 32/1 The spit ball..when pitched with a side arm movement will go out. 1909 Amer. Mag. Aug. 402/2 He pitched..two fast side arm balls, high and outside. 1939 ‘N. Blake’ Smiler with Knife xii. 188 The unerring side-arm flick..had surprised many confident run-stealers before now. 1948 Sun (Baltimore) 15 Mar. 17/8 Blackwell said his best pitch was a fast sidearm ball. 1978 Detroit Free Press 5 Mar. c8/3 ‘He struck me out three times one day,’ said Williams. ‘He threw the sidearm slider and it would come into your face and explode.’ |
2. as adv. With a sweep of the arm extended sideways; in a side-arm manner.
| 1958 I. Cross God Boy vii. 55 She swam sidearm alongside me. 1973 C. Sagan Cosmic Connection (1975) xv. 112 As pitcher, he could throw the ball sidearm—at the horizon at between twenty and thirty miles per hour. |