sidewinder

noun

side·​wind·​er ˈsīd-ˌwīn-dər 

1

: a heavy swinging blow from the side

2

: a small pale-colored desert rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) of the southwestern U.S. that moves by thrusting its body diagonally forward in a series of flat S-shaped curves

Illustration of sidewinder

• sidewinder 2

Examples of sidewinder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

South Shore Terrace's 2023 sales In 2023, South Shore Terrace served more than 100,000 beers, 15,000 non-alcoholic drinks, 25,000 orders of sidewinder fries, 5,500 orders of cheese curds and 5,000 pretzels. —Hannah Kirby, Journal Sentinel, 1 Apr. 2024

Among them is a man who a month ago was bitten by a sidewinder rattlesnake near the desert resort city of Palm Springs. —Louis Sahagún, Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec. 2023

Two F-22s tracked the object and one of them fired the AIM-9X sidewinder missile near the location of Deadhorse, Alaska, which is right on Prudhoe Bay, according to the Pentagon. —ABC News, 12 Feb. 2023

The variety of rattlesnakes in the U.S. is vast, from the Eastern Diamondback, which loves the long pine forests of the Southeast and can be found in parks throughout the region, from the Everglades to Cumberland Island National Seashore, to the sidewinder, found in the deserts of the Southwest. —Graham Averill, Outside Online, 28 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1824, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

sidewinder

noun

side·​wind·​er -ˌwīn-dər 

: a small rattlesnake of the southwestern U.S. that moves by thrusting its body diagonally forward in a series of flat S-shaped loops

Medical Definition

sidewinder

noun

side·​wind·​er ˈsīd-ˌwīnd-ər 

: a small pale-colored venomous rattlesnake of the genus Crotalus (C. cerastes) of the southwestern United States that moves by thrusting its body diagonally forward in a series of S-shaped curves

called also horned rattlesnake