Definition of "sideswipe" [sideswipe]

• To strike along the side in passing. (verb-transitive)
• A glancing blow on or along the side. (noun)
• An incidental critical remark; a gibe. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A 2007 Nissan Sentra was traveling west on W.Va. 9 and a 2009 Toyota Yaris traveling eastbound struck it in what police described as a sideswipe manner, causing the Toyota to run over an embankment, rolling onto its side against a tree."
• "But beyond another sideswipe at employment rights this autumn, there was little new from the Treasury."
• "The fifth edition of the Oxford Companion to English Literature defined it as "often containing not only fictional but historical people and/or events," adding that "in serious work there is a real attempt at accuracy and credibility" a sideswipe perhaps at bodice- rippers."