A walk by the side of a street or road, whether simply trodden down, or boarded, or paved. A word much needed in England.
1817. The posts are placed directly in the path upon the side walk.—Mass. Spy, Nov. 5.
1825. Charleston is about the size of Boston, but has neither pavements nor sidewalks, and alternates between mud and dust, and dust and mud.—J. K. Paulding, ‘John Bull in America,’ p. 14 (N.Y.).
1828. A paper entitled “Side-walks” appeared in The Yankee, Portland, Maine, April 16.
1832. They [the streets of Pompeii] differ from the streets in the towns of modern Italy in the circumstance of having side walks, and at short intervals flat stones a little elevated above the pavement for crossing them in bad weather.—E. C. Wines, ‘Two Years and a Half in the Navy,’ ii. 80 (Phila.).
1834. The wheels were running on the curbstone edge of the sidewalk, so close and swift, that a stream of fire was issuing from the iron of the wheels and the stone, like a train of powder.—Grant Thorburn, ‘Forty Years’ Residence in America,’ p. 105 (Boston).
1841. The side-walk along its front should be flagged.—Mr. Woodbridge of Michigan, in the U.S. Senate, Aug.: Cong. Globe, p. 447, App.
1843. Our side-walk, for a mile, was paved with wood, not chemically, but mechanically: a line of hewed logs ran from the Colleges to the centre of Woodville. This pave was used in miry times—until anybody received two severe falls, after which he stuck to the mud-way of the vulgar road.—B. R. Hall (‘Robert Carlton’), ‘The New Purchase,’ ii. 306.
1844. The only additional expense which the bill proposed to incur was in widening the side-walks about thirteen feet.—Mr. Miller of New Jersey, U.S. Senate, Feb. 15: Cong. Globe, p. 280.
1848. The fust thing I know’d I got a most alfired skeer, that made me jump clear off the side-walk into the street, before I know’d what I was about.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel,’ p. 63 (Phila.).
1848. See HERN.
1855. The side-walk (what a misnomer!) is covered [with merchandize].—S. A. Hammett (‘Philip Paxton’), ‘Captain Priest,’ p. 237.
1864. You will not take care of your side-walk in the winter, and I have thought that you take a malicious satisfaction in hearing your neighbors curse you as they hobble over the ice in front of your house.—J. G. Holland, ‘Letters to the Joneses,’ p. 327.
