† sidewipern.
Obsolete.
1. Originally and chiefly U.S. An agricultural implement consisting of a long steel blade set at an angle on a frame, drawn by horses or a traction engine, and used to move ploughed earth to the side.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > ploughing equipment > [noun] > other ploughing equipment
trainc1450
rod bat1842
sidewiper1842
porter1864
stubble-turner1875
1842 Southern Planter May 100/2 We run what is called the side wiper, the best tool for corn I have seen.
1887 R. J. Hinton Irrigation in U.S. 206 in Executive Documents U.S. Senate (49th Congress, 2nd Sess.) A ‘side-wiper’..is a long iron blade, lowered from a frame which rests upon four wheels, so that when drawn by a powerful team it slants the plowed soil to one side.
1904 Minutes Proc. Inst. Civil Engineers 158 404 The earth is thrown up neatly on both sides of the race to an even slope by an implement... This implement is called a ‘side-wiper’.
2. = sideswipe n. (literal and figurative).
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society > communication > information > hint or covert suggestion > [noun]
feelc1485
inkling1529
intimation1531
insinuation1532
by-warning1542
byword1542
item1561
cue1565
air1567
vent1613
insusurration1614
hinta1616
injection1622
indication1626
infusion1641
side glance1693
ground bass1699
touch1706
side view1747
sidewipe1757
allusion1766
penumbra1770
breath1795
slyness1823
by-hint1853
light1854
shove1857
suggestion1863
sous-entendu1865
point1870
sidewiper1870
sniff1936
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > criticism > [noun] > indirect > instance of
sidestroke1611
by-wipe1641
by-fling1651
sidewipe1757
sidekick1844
by-quip1855
sidewiper1870
sideswipe1882
snipe1969
the world > movement > impact > striking > striking with specific thing > [noun] > with the hand > with the fist > on or from the side
sidewipe1725
sidewinder1824
sidewiper1870
1870 Weekly Arizona Miner 20 Aug. The following ‘side-wipers’ are from the New York World.
1888 J. C. Harris Free Joe 58 Write him a note,..and fling in a kind of side-wiper about New Jersey.
1893 H. T. Cozens-Hardy Broad Norfolk (Eastern Daily Press) 94 Sidewiper, a blow on the side of anything with a stick.
1901 B. F. Buchanan Bogus Hollow v. 75 He kicked them [sc. some oxen] and in return got a sidewiper that knocked him out of the barn onto a rock pile.
1905 Longman's Mag. June 147 ‘Give him a side-wiper across th' skull,’ one shouted in his ear.
3. U.S. colloquial. Any of several rattlesnakes of the south-western United States, spec. the massasauga, Sistrurus catenatus.Hodge's 1877 description of ‘its peculiar habit of locomotion sideways, instead of ahead’ suggests possible confusion with the sidewinder, Crotalus cerastes. The same may be true in quot. 1889.
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the world > animals > reptiles > order Squamata (lizards and snakes) > suborder Ophidia (snakes) > types of snake > [noun] > family Viperidae (vipers) > subfamily Crotalinae > member of genus Sistrurus
rattlesnake1624
cascabel1758
prairie rattlesnake1817
rattler1827
massasauga1835
Mississauga rattler1843
mangrove cascabel1858
sidewiper1873
prairie rattler1878
ground rattler1908
1873 World (San Diego, Calif.) 20 Feb. 1/3 There was a Mexican woman at Tucson, bit by a side-wiper, on the foot, and her head swelled up, as big as a punkin, and one eye fell out.
1877 H. C. Hodge Arizona xxii. 226 The side wiper..is found through most of the valleys and plains, and is from two to three feet in length.
1889 Cent. Dict. Crotalophorus..are commonly known as ‘sidewipers’, from their habit of wriggling sidewise.
1912 Engin. & Mining Jrnl. 94 102/2 Arizona was a wilderness of sand, cactus and sage brush, fit abode of such denizens as the horned toad, side-wiper, [etc.].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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n.1842