side-on 
adverb
With the side of someone or something towards something else: the ship was wallowing side-on to the swell...
- My position was side-on from the serving counter and they hadn't noticed me standing there staring at them.
- I used to be classed as a mixed-action bowler, which means the lower half of my body was predominantly front-on, with the top half side-on.
- After avoiding a series of jabs, Lewis was standing side-on when Rahman threw that final devastating right.
adjective
1Directed from or towards a side: a shot of the crowd from the side-on camera...
- It would all have been so different if Dudgeon's side-on volley on the stroke of half-time from a Dunning corner had gone an inch lower instead of thundering into the crossbar.
- Modern biomechanical studies have revealed that the side-on technique might not actually be beneficial as this method, if not practiced to perfection, might actually end up putting more stress on the back.
- The protein coverage was assessed by a side-on adsorption (motivated by the central position of the His-tag in the protein) of closed packed ellipsoids.
1.1(Of a collision) involving the side of a vehicle.While I don't want to stint on my daughter's safety - I have every intention of buying a car that can take a side-on collision from a Tomahawk missile - I am constantly amazed at the precautions we must take these days....
- Testers calculated that a driver would be unlikely to survive a head-on collision at 40 mph, and in a side-on collision at 30 mph the driver would suffer severe head and chest injuries due to a lack of side protection.
- The freight driver realised his mistake and brought his train to a halt, said the report, which added that ‘a low speed, side-on collision could have resulted’.
