▪ I. siding, vbl. n.
(ˈsaɪdɪŋ)
Also 7, 9 sideing.
[f. side v.1 or n.1 + -ing1.]
I. 1. a. The action of taking sides in a conflict or debate; party spirit, partisanship, factiousness.
Common in the first half of the 17th cent.
| 1604 Hieron Wks. I. 497 When as..men fall to haue great reasoning among themselues, there cannot but follow a kind of division and siding. a 1653 G. Daniel Idyll. iv. 57 For Sideing is a madnes, where the Hand Acts to a Somewhat we but vnderstand In the Relations. 1661 Baxter Last Work Believer Wks. (1846) 255 She was seriously religious without any taint of siding or faction. |
| attrib. 1605 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 183 Having found that siding course..to be a false ground and ruinous to them that take it. 1647 Trapp Comm. Heb. x. 25 It was then, it was afterwards, and is still in these siding and separating times. |
b. An instance of taking or forming sides.
Common in 17th
cent., sometimes in quasi-concrete use.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. Ded. p. i, The turbulent tempests and bloudy broiles of factious sidings. 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions xxxviii. 491 Nor indeed is there any thing which had bred more Distempers in the Body of Learning, than Factions and Sidings. 1717 Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 323 What gatherings there have been, and sidings of great men mixing themselves in every case almost. |
c. Const.
with.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 226 It shadeth the minde from the inconveniences of Quarrells, Disputes, Sidings with Opinions. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Amb. 421 By reason of his siding with the Muscovian Merchants. 1680 Baxter Cath. Commun. (1684) 10 All Christians must earnestly oppose Divisions, and Sects, and sidings with Strife and Envy. 1887 Pall Mall G. 15 Jan. 6/1 The clear-headed parish priest, whose siding heart and soul with his people is to my mind proof conclusive that they have right on their side. |
2. The action of tending or moving to a side.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 62 The variation of the compasse is..a deflexion and siding East and West from the true meridian. 1894 Daily News 7 July 6/6 When the bell rings to clear the course, there is again the ‘siding’ of the little boats to watch. |
3. The action of laying out the sides of a field.
| 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey ii. ii. 49 Collaterage Actiue, as siding, furrowing,..impayling, immuring [etc.]. |
4. U.S. The action of dressing or trimming the sides of timber.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2175/1 Siding,..that part of the operation of forming or trimming ship's timbers, etc., which consists in giving them their correct breadths. 1879 Lumberman's Gaz. 15 Oct., Mulays were used in siding down for the gang [saw]. |
| attrib. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2175/1 Siding-machine, a machine for sawing timbers. 1879 Lumberman's Gaz. 5 Nov., The machinery first put in included a mulay and a siding mill. |
II. 5. † a. A side of anything.
Obs.—1| 1627 Speed England xlii. §2 The forme thereof is Triangle, and differs not much in the Sidings. |
b. orig. and chiefly
U.S. The boarding (
usu. timber) forming the sides of a building; weather-boarding. Also (with
a and
pl.), a piece of this.
| 1829 J. F. Cooper Wept of Wish-ton-wish I. xvii. 246 [Dwellings] constructed of a firm frame-work, neatly covered with sidings of boards. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Sidings, a name in America for long wedge-shaped boards, used for the sides or roofs of houses. 1866 Morning Star 31 Dec., The necessities of heat in the tropical department enforce the use of large quantities of wood for flooring, sidings [etc.]. 1874 J. W. Long Amer. Wild-fowl iv. 89 Strips of weather-boarding, or ‘siding’, as it is called out West, may be made to take their place. 1946 E. Hodgins Mr Blandings builds his Dream House xiii. 191 The mason subcontractor was stalled in his tracks since..no finished siding could even begin to be nailed to the sheathing. 1958 N.Z. Timber Jrnl. Sept. 87/1 Sidings, weatherboards for vertical surfaces. Varieties incude: feather-edge, novelty, rebated, ship-lap. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 1/2 Outside the house, a black hole in the white siding showed where one bullet had driven through the living room wall. 1970 Washington Post 30 Sept. b. 13/7 (Advt.), A sparkling white home is yours with Reynolds aluminum siding installed by Hechinger. |
| attrib. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2568/2 Siding-tiles are used as a substitute for weather boarding. Ibid. 2749/2 Weather-board, lapping siding-boards for houses. |
c. = sideling n. 2.
Austral. and
N.Z.| 1891 G. Chamier Philosopher Dick i. xiii. 360 He told him to mind the siding by the shoot. 1902 H. Lawson Joe Wilson in Prose Works (1946) 350 The dark box-scrub-covered ridges ended in steep ‘sidings’ coming down to the creek-bank. 1904 G. B. Lancaster Sons o' Men 28 Must have gone over the siding. 1931 F. D. Davison Man-Shy (1934) xii. 165 The scrubbers were grazing along an ironbark siding. 1975 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Sept. 27/2 The animal which grazes mostly on non-treated areas—such as gullies or sidings—..will not be fully protected. |
6. Naut. (See
quot. c 1850.)
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 399/2 Set off in the half⁓breadth plan the siding of the middle and after fashion⁓piece. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 147 Siding,..the size or dimensions of timber the contrary way to the moulding, or moulded side. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. iv. 72 The body post, while retaining a very large siding, has a comparatively small moulding. 1874 Thearle Nav. Arch. 10 The logs should be about 14 or 16 inches siding. |
| attrib. 1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 283 Siding dimension, in ship-building, implies the breadth of a piece of timber. |
7. a. A short piece of additional track parallel to the main line of a railway or tramway, and connected with it by switches, for enabling trains, trucks, etc., to pass each other or to lie by.
| 1825 Wood Pract. Treat. Railroads 299 BB1 is a siding or passing for the carriages going in opposite directions. 1849 Sir F. B. Head Stokers & Pokers iv. (1851) 50 The carriages, after being unhooked,..are rapidly carried off into the sidings. 1881 Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. vi. 377 Our journey was brought unexpectedly to an end by the train running into a siding. |
| attrib. 1850 Mechanic's Mag. Nov. 370 Beckers' self-acting siding-stop. 1897 Daily News 14 June 7/2 To reduce the accounts of traders for siding rents by 50 per cent. |
b. A passing-place in a canal.
| 1852 Mechanic's Mag. July 4 Passing-places or sidings, to enable trains of boats going in opposite direction to meet and pass each other. 1883 Dillwyn Sp. Parl. 19 July, To increase the carrying capacity of the Canal..in deepening the channel, or by adding sidings. |
▪ II. siding, ppl. a. (
ˈsaɪdɪŋ)
[f. side v.1 + -ing2.] 1. Taking the side or part of a person or cause.
| 1634 Milton Comus 212 The vertuous mind, that ever walks attended By a strong siding champion, Conscience. 1645 ― Tetrach. Wks. 1851 IV. 243 There is yet to this our exposition, a stronger siding freind, then any can be an adversary. 1833 Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound Wks. (1904) 145 The antique Chronos and his siding hosts. |
b. Taking a side; factious, partisan.
rare—1.
| 1661 Baxter Moral Prognost. i. xciv. 22 An Opinionative, Modal, and Siding Religiousness, hath ever more Followers..than true Holiness. |
2. Forming a side or border; bordering.
rare—1.
| 1833 Mrs. Browning Prometh. Bound Wks. (1904) 150 Along the sands of the siding deep..he follows me. |