Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A paved walkway along the side of a street.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A footwalk by the side of a street or road; specifically, a paved or otherwise prepared way for pedestrians in a town, usually separated from the roadway by a curb and gutter. Also (in Great Britain nearly always) called pavement.
Wiktionary
- n. US a paved footpath at the side of a road for the use of pedestrians; a pavement (UK) or footpath (Australia)
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. U.S. A walk for foot passengers at the side of a street or road; a foot pavement.
WordNet 3.0
- n. walk consisting of a paved area for pedestrians; usually beside a street or roadway
Etymologies
- From side + walk. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Retta, who has seven children and 11 grandkids, says he is moved by his Catholic faith to do what he calls sidewalk counseling.”
“Retta, who has seven children and 11 grandkids, says he's moved by his Catholic faith to do what he calls sidewalk counseling.”
“She is a huge Twilight fan and loves to write Bella and Edward in sidewalk chalk – she says he is hers not Bella Swan!”
Twilight Lexicon » Jacob and Isabella Top Popular Baby Names Lists Again
“I had walking pneumonia and a broken heart, and I was taking the bus home from work in a howling nor'easter and I had a mile to walk with no sidewalk from the bus stop to my door.”
the cadillacs come creeping through the night and the poison gas
“Workshop: Finding medicinal herbs growing in sidewalk cracks”
“Cement versions of Virgin Mary have been donated by different towns such as Colima, Tepic, Zapopan, and others, and they line the wide sidewalk from the arch into town.”
“In St. Louis, a worker removed rubble strewn across a sidewalk from the partial collapse of a 1920s-era building.”
“The sidewalk is long, and stretches as far as she can see.”
The Washington Post: In Arizona, an illegal immigrant and her family face a stark choice
“- The time required to repair a brick sidewalk is very little compared to concrete, it requires no heavy equipment and is relatively quiet.”
“The lunchtime crowd has spilled out on to the sidewalk, and now has become so big that again the sidewalk is blocked.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sidewalk’.
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Americanism
American words
finest, fast food, acclimate, aluminum, alphabetize, airplane, affirmative action, arugula, backhoe, bangs, base board, bayou and 162 more...
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all sides
sidecar, sidekick, sided, sidelong, sider, sideline, sidewise, sideways, sidetrack, sideslip, sidestep, sidepiece and 103 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 282 more...
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REGI - urban development
urban planning, urban redevelopment, legal base, metropolitan area, periphery, strategic plan, neighborhood plan, regulatory and in..., slums, decay, suburbanization, urbanization and 467 more...
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Beautiful Compound Words
aftermath, afterthought, butterfly, campfire, colorblind, backhand, crossword, cupcake, dollhouse, drawbridge, dreadlock, dreamscape and 73 more...
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Walking in the snow
If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, I would suggest this other list.
snow, snotsicle, scarf, snowsuit, mittens, gloves, hat, layers, boots, eyelashes freezin..., chemical heat pack, coveralls and 31 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
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Surveying
an attempt to subdivide your life
theodolite, gun, instrument, azimuth, bearing, angle, chainman, crew chief, minor partition, control, backsight, d.i. and 77 more...
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MEC4 Lesson 154
bird's eye view, subtitle, dry humor, outraged, credence, heated, defile, purist, affected, pompous, incisive, straightforward and 32 more...
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you see them when you are walking
trees, sidewalk, people, crossing guard, pets, dogs, houses, cars, windows, scooters, streets, stop sign and 1 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sidewalk.
darqueau the owners of this property are pleased to allow the public a revocable license to use this private sidewalk area. Oct 29, 2008
rolig Personally, I find "nature strip" hilarious when I think of the suburbs I grew up in, as if one might expect to see, as one strolls down the sidewalk, interesting fauna and flora all labeled with their proper Linnaean names and places of origin, instead of an undistinguished narrow tract of suburban grass and dandelions with the occasional manhole cover and fire hydrant. Nature, indeed. May 9, 2008
jennarenn Our family always called it "the right of way" because of the public utilities, similar to dontcry. May 9, 2008
plethora I've never heard it have a name either. In my mind, a nature strip is the same as a median strip: the island in the middle of a wide road. May 9, 2008
gangerh I've seen road signs saying 'Keep off the verge'. No-one takes any notice in the UK. I'm always seeing cars on the verge of being driven off the verge they were requested to keep off of. May 9, 2008
sarra UK here (I don't think “verge” is any more local than that, though I may be wrong). May 9, 2008
reesetee What I love about New Jerseyans: One describes one's neighborhood by the nearest turnpike exit. :-) May 8, 2008
rolig I grew up in Baltimore (the 'burbs, actually - Parkville and Lutherville, to be precise), and I don't remember this grassy strip ever being called anything, except "the grass between the sidewalk and the road" (as in, "Don't forget to mow . . ."). But according to your map, ptero, I should have been calling it berm! I didn't even know this word existed, but it's a good one. Thanks! May 8, 2008
mollusque Yup. Exit 4. May 8, 2008
reesetee Ooooh, Southern New Jersey. Now I understand. ;-) May 8, 2008
mollusque Southern New Jersey near Philadelphia. May 8, 2008
frindley I'm with bilby: the nature strip lies between the footpath and the road. May 8, 2008
reesetee Funny, mollusque--I think we're in the same general region and I've never heard "curb strip" used. *thinking* May 8, 2008
pterodactyl Hey sarra and mollusque -- where are you from? May 8, 2008
sarra It's a verge here (while the sidewalk is, naturally, the pavement). May 8, 2008
bilby Doppelganger blues, dc :-( May 8, 2008
kewpid See also: footpath. May 8, 2008
dontcry Bilby: are you beside yourself today? May 8, 2008
mollusque The map has my location pegged: curb strip it is. May 8, 2008
bilby In Australia I've never heard it called anything other than nature strip. May 8, 2008
bilby In Australia I've never heard it called anything other than nature strip. May 8, 2008
dontcry I think we call it, Marylanders that is (no, no relation to Ann Landers), the utility area or strip or something like that. It's usually the place the cable, phone, & gas, guys rip to shreds once a year or so. May 8, 2008
trivet Parking strip. May 8, 2008
dontcry It should be called Dog Doo Alley -- in every state! May 8, 2008
pterodactyl Also, I think Wisconsinite is a really funny word. :-) May 7, 2008
pterodactyl Here's a chance for me to post another one of those regional dialect maps. What do you call the area of grass between the sidewalk and the road?
I, personally, have no word for it, but apparently Iowans call it the parking, Ohioans call it the tree lawn, and Wisconsinites call it the terrace. See maps here. May 7, 2008