Sidestep
verb
To avoid a problem or a difficult situation.
She managed to sidestep the difficult question.
Often appears as...
- sidestep a problem
- sidestep a question
verb
To step to one side, especially to avoid something.
He sidestepped quickly to avoid the oncoming bicycle.
Often appears as...
- sidestep quickly
- sidestep to avoid
verb
To avoid dealing with or discussing something.
Politicians often sidestep the real issues during their campaigns.
Often appears as...
- sidestep the issue
- sidestep the question
verb
To avoid a problem or a difficult situation.
She managed to sidestep the difficult question.
Often appears as...
- sidestep a problem
- sidestep a question
verb
To step to one side, especially to avoid something.
He sidestepped quickly to avoid the oncoming bicycle.
Often appears as...
- sidestep quickly
- sidestep to avoid
verb
To avoid dealing with or discussing something.
Politicians often sidestep the real issues during their campaigns.
Often appears as...
- sidestep the issue
- sidestep the question
Definition 1 of 3
Pro Tip 1/2Figurative Avoidance
Use 'sidestep' when you metaphorically avoid an issue, not physically moving away.
When asked about his plans, he sidestepped the topic, discussing the weather instead.
Pro Tip 2/2Subtle Evasion
'Sidestep' often implies skillfully avoiding a difficult situation without causing offense.
She sidestepped the sensitive subject by steering the conversation to a neutral topic.
Pro Tip 1/2Figurative Avoidance
Use 'sidestep' when you metaphorically avoid an issue, not physically moving away.
When asked about his plans, he sidestepped the topic, discussing the weather instead.
Pro Tip 2/2Subtle Evasion
'Sidestep' often implies skillfully avoiding a difficult situation without causing offense.
She sidestepped the sensitive subject by steering the conversation to a neutral topic.
Pro Tip 1/2Figurative Avoidance
Use 'sidestep' when you metaphorically avoid an issue, not physically moving away.
When asked about his plans, he sidestepped the topic, discussing the weather instead.
Pro Tip 2/2Subtle Evasion
'Sidestep' often implies skillfully avoiding a difficult situation without causing offense.
She sidestepped the sensitive subject by steering the conversation to a neutral topic.
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Video examples
Itamar Mann: A new...
cannot rely on Libyan militia to sidestep their own accountability. On a high level of generality, the question is when is a point of contact established between a person in need of protection and a state that can protect them. I've called this moment the human rights encounter. It is a dramatic moment
Video examples
Rob Hopkins: Transition...
can somehow neatly sidestep those energy constraints, the idea that we'll discover some fabulous new source of energy that will mean we can sweep all concerns about energy security to one side, the idea that we can step off neatly onto a completely renewable world. But the world isn't Second Life.
Video examples
Inside the black hole...
And this technique that we use of linking telescopes around the world kind of effortlessly sidesteps some of the issues that divide us. And as scientists, we naturally come together to do something like this. Wow, boy, that's inspiring for our whole team this week.
Video examples
Sting: How I started...
Did your best work occur when you sidestepped your own ego and you stopped telling your story, but told someone else's story, someone perhaps without a voice, where empathetically, you stood in his shoes for a while or saw the world through his eyes?
Video examples
The opportunity of...
unscathed or unmarked by the experience, as if my successes in life have come about from an ability to sidestep or circumnavigate the presumed pitfalls of a life with prosthetics, or what other people perceive as my disability.
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 352 PIPE...
yeah it's very cool to see a sidestep Jocko would you've not seen for a very very long time
Video examples
Wolf Pack Hunts A Hare PIPE...
If it can continue to sidestep and jink, it may ultimately outlast them.
Video examples
Best Wild Animal Chases...
instant if it can continue to sidestep and drink
Video examples
BBC Earth 50 Top Natural...
instant if it can continue to sidestep and
Video examples
Best Scenes From The...
if it can continue to sidestep and
Video examples
Itamar Mann: A new...
cannot rely on Libyan militia to sidestep their own accountability. On a high level of generality, the question is when is a point of contact established between a person in need of protection and a state that can protect them. I've called this moment the human rights encounter. It is a dramatic moment
Video examples
Rob Hopkins: Transition...
can somehow neatly sidestep those energy constraints, the idea that we'll discover some fabulous new source of energy that will mean we can sweep all concerns about energy security to one side, the idea that we can step off neatly onto a completely renewable world. But the world isn't Second Life.
Video examples
Inside the black hole...
And this technique that we use of linking telescopes around the world kind of effortlessly sidesteps some of the issues that divide us. And as scientists, we naturally come together to do something like this. Wow, boy, that's inspiring for our whole team this week.
Video examples
Sting: How I started...
Did your best work occur when you sidestepped your own ego and you stopped telling your story, but told someone else's story, someone perhaps without a voice, where empathetically, you stood in his shoes for a while or saw the world through his eyes?
Video examples
The opportunity of...
unscathed or unmarked by the experience, as if my successes in life have come about from an ability to sidestep or circumnavigate the presumed pitfalls of a life with prosthetics, or what other people perceive as my disability.
Video examples
Safari Live - Day 352 PIPE...
yeah it's very cool to see a sidestep Jocko would you've not seen for a very very long time
Video examples
Wolf Pack Hunts A Hare PIPE...
If it can continue to sidestep and jink, it may ultimately outlast them.
Video examples
Best Wild Animal Chases...
instant if it can continue to sidestep and drink
Video examples
BBC Earth 50 Top Natural...
instant if it can continue to sidestep and
Video examples
Best Scenes From The...
if it can continue to sidestep and
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
J. G. Ballard
British Author
Burroughs called his greatest novel 'Naked Lunch,' by which he meant it's what you see on the end of a fork. Telling the truth. It's very difficult to do that in fiction because the whole process of writing fiction is a process of sidestepping the truth. I think he got very close to it, in his way, and I hope I've done the same in mine.
Quote examples
Steven Pinker
Canadian Scientist
When people talk, they lay lines on each other, do a lot of role playing, sidestep, shilly-shally and engage in all manner of vagueness and innuendo. We do this and expect others to do it, yet at the same time we profess to long for the plain truth, for people to say what they mean, simple as that. Such hypocrisy is a human universal.
Quote examples
Andre Aciman
American Writer
A hidden nerve is what every writer is ultimately about. It's what all writers wish to uncover when writing about themselves in this age of the personal memoir. And yet it's also the first thing every writer learns to sidestep, to disguise, as though this nerve were a deep and shameful secret that needs to be swathed in many sheaths.
Quote examples
Olaf Carlson-Wee
American Businessman
We are seeing entrepreneurs issuing their own blockchain-based tokens to raise money for their networks, sidestepping the traditional, exclusive world of venture capital altogether. The importance of this cannot be overstated - in this new world, there are no companies, just protocols.
Quote examples
John Cho
American Actor
Because I sidestepped all the stereotypical roles, in a way I've made a career out of not being Asian - a lot of my roles weren't written as Asian - so there's an impulse in me that wants to take a U-turn and play a very grounded, real Asian character, maybe an immigrant.
Quote examples
Sidney Poitier
American Actor
I know how easy it is for one to stay well within moral, ethical, and legal bounds through the skillful use of words - and to thereby spin, sidestep, circumvent, or bend a truth completely out of shape. To that extent, we are all liars on numerous occasions.
Quote examples
Suzanne Vega
American Musician
Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that there's a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.
Quote examples
Chael Sonnen
American Athlete
I'm not going to sidestep anybody, I'm not going to back down from anybody at any weight, and most importantly, I'm not going to pick on a guy who is weaker.
Quote examples
Rush Limbaugh
American Entertainer
Apple is to the United States government what Clarence Thomas was to the civil rights coalition. How dare you get this big sidestepping us.
Quote examples
William S. Burroughs
American Writer
The world wasn't a more tolerant place when I was a young man. Rather, they simply sidestepped all the issues.
Quote examples
J. G. Ballard
British Author
Burroughs called his greatest novel 'Naked Lunch,' by which he meant it's what you see on the end of a fork. Telling the truth. It's very difficult to do that in fiction because the whole process of writing fiction is a process of sidestepping the truth. I think he got very close to it, in his way, and I hope I've done the same in mine.
Quote examples
Steven Pinker
Canadian Scientist
When people talk, they lay lines on each other, do a lot of role playing, sidestep, shilly-shally and engage in all manner of vagueness and innuendo. We do this and expect others to do it, yet at the same time we profess to long for the plain truth, for people to say what they mean, simple as that. Such hypocrisy is a human universal.
Quote examples
Andre Aciman
American Writer
A hidden nerve is what every writer is ultimately about. It's what all writers wish to uncover when writing about themselves in this age of the personal memoir. And yet it's also the first thing every writer learns to sidestep, to disguise, as though this nerve were a deep and shameful secret that needs to be swathed in many sheaths.
Quote examples
Olaf Carlson-Wee
American Businessman
We are seeing entrepreneurs issuing their own blockchain-based tokens to raise money for their networks, sidestepping the traditional, exclusive world of venture capital altogether. The importance of this cannot be overstated - in this new world, there are no companies, just protocols.
Quote examples
John Cho
American Actor
Because I sidestepped all the stereotypical roles, in a way I've made a career out of not being Asian - a lot of my roles weren't written as Asian - so there's an impulse in me that wants to take a U-turn and play a very grounded, real Asian character, maybe an immigrant.
Quote examples
Sidney Poitier
American Actor
I know how easy it is for one to stay well within moral, ethical, and legal bounds through the skillful use of words - and to thereby spin, sidestep, circumvent, or bend a truth completely out of shape. To that extent, we are all liars on numerous occasions.
Quote examples
Suzanne Vega
American Musician
Writing in other voices is almost Japanese in the sense that there's a certain formality there which allows me to sidestep the embarrassment of directly expressing to complete strangers the most intimate details of my life.
Quote examples
Chael Sonnen
American Athlete
I'm not going to sidestep anybody, I'm not going to back down from anybody at any weight, and most importantly, I'm not going to pick on a guy who is weaker.
Quote examples
Rush Limbaugh
American Entertainer
Apple is to the United States government what Clarence Thomas was to the civil rights coalition. How dare you get this big sidestepping us.
Quote examples
William S. Burroughs
American Writer
The world wasn't a more tolerant place when I was a young man. Rather, they simply sidestepped all the issues.
Example 1 of 10
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