sidesteps

verb

present tense third-person singular of sidestep
1
as in circumvents
to avoid having to comply with (something) especially through cleverness the eager enlistee sidestepped the regulations by lying about his age

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in weaves
to move suddenly aside or to and fro the startled spectator sidestepped away from the oncoming ball

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of sidesteps Doing so sidesteps the higher yields on longer tenors but increases refinancing risks. — Greg Ritchie, Fortune, 13 Aug. 2026 By working through employers, Addition Wealth sidesteps the brutal customer acquisition costs that have undermined most direct-to-consumer fintech plays and gains access to the data that makes guidance genuinely personal. — Geri Stengel, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026 Colom mostly sidesteps Mississippi history or electoral math unless asked. — ABC News, 7 Aug. 2026 The Azizuddin Brothers have spent the better part of a decade making work that sidesteps genre convention and mainstream expectation. — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 5 Aug. 2026 Most polls have him in second place in his own party behind Memphis councilwoman Jerri Green, but his presence in the race at all is notable for a genre that generally sidesteps politics altogether. — Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 4 Aug. 2026 Fauci’s decision to invoke the Fifth, at least for now, sidesteps calls for his prosecution if he is accused of lying at Wednesday’s hearing, part of a yearslong campaign for his arrest spearheaded by some Republicans in Congress. — Lauran Neergaard, Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2026 This completely sidesteps current debates plaguing Medicare Part B — namely, rapidly mounting medication spending has driven higher premiums and out-of-pocket payments for beneficiaries. — Pooja Yerramilli, STAT, 24 July 2026 Building a track car sidesteps all the hardest parts of car manufacturing—like bringing it up to safety, emissions, and other compliance standards for road cars. — Andrew P. Collins, The Drive, 16 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sidesteps
  1. circumvents
  2. weaves
  3. avoids
  4. dodges
  5. evades
  6. ducks
  7. bypasses
  8. ignores
Verb
  • Additionally, because the $50 co-payment circumvents Part D, the amount doesn’t count toward a beneficiary’s annual deductible or out-of-pocket maximum.
    — Joshua P. Cohen, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • The exhibit mostly circumvents contextualizing the architectural details of the office, and rather aims to explicate the man who worked within it.
    — Katherine McLaughlin, Architectural Digest, 26 June 2026
Definition of circumvents
Verb
  • The documentary around that single day and single game also weaves into the account of Curry’s on-court artistry the thoughts of other innovative artists like Viola Davis, Rick Rubin, Patti Smith, and Jon Batiste.
    — Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2026
  • The boyfriend, a British DJ named James Kennedy, who had been playing a clunky set in the background, weaves over to the women, sweaty and frazzled.
    — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan, Vanity Fair, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of weaves
Verb
  • And the lichen also avoids non-bearing rocks like granite, sandstone, and quartzite, where its occurrence dropped to less than one percent.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 24 Aug. 2026
  • For the record, my hunch is Notre Dame avoids the flat-tire game that’s dogged Freeman.
    — Pete Sampson, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of avoids
Verb
  • West Orange dodges a huge bullet as Hoban’s John Johnson drops a wide open pass that would’ve been an 80 yard touchdown.
    — Buddy Collings, The Orlando Sentinel, 20 Aug. 2026
  • The movie sees that trap coming and dodges it by the skin of its teeth.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of dodges
Verb
  • This skin-crawling faux-documentary concerns a prolific New York serial killer who evades capture despite recording his brazen crimes.
    — Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 7 July 2026
  • However, Noussair Mazraoui evades Casemiro’s challenge far too easily before Bilal El Khannouss releases Achraf Hakimi on the far side.
    — Mark Carey, New York Times, 6 July 2026
Definition of evades
Verb
  • In the video, the subject ducks his head in the opposite direction of the doorbell camera.
    — Michael Ruiz , Adam Sabes , Christina Dugan Ramirez , Sarah Rumpf-Whitten , Julia Bonavita , Peter D'Abrosca , Alexandra Koch , Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 3 Feb. 2026
  • The sun ducks down and sets Conejo Mountain against warm pinks and purples, transforming the ridgeline into an epic silhouette.
    — Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2025
Definition of ducks
Verb
  • Flit bypasses this by using aerospace-grade structural epoxies.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 29 Aug. 2026
  • Abu Dhabi is expanding a pipeline to Fujairah that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, while some of its tankers are managing to slip through the waterway, helping ADNOC maintain and sometimes even exceed prewar flows.
    — Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of bypasses
Verb
  • If a cyclist ignores a moving violation summons and gets stopped again while cycling, there’s nothing the NYPD can do other than issue more moving violation summonses that will be ignored and go unpaid.
    — Voice of the People, New York Daily News, 24 Aug. 2026
  • But that’s a much smaller part of the story than the argument suggests, and ignores that the majority of the competitive stakes in major European divisions are driven by the quest for continental competition.
    — Ian Nicholas Quillen, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of ignores

Browse Nearby Words

sidestepping
sidesteps
side street
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Cite this Entry

“Sidesteps.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sidesteps. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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