LATERAL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Lateral

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/lˈætərəl/ Listen

adjective

Lateral adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to the sides; as, the lateral walls of a house; the lateral branches of a tree.

2.

(Anat.) Lying at, or extending toward, the side; away from the mesial plane; external; opposed to mesial.

3.

Directed to the side; as, a lateral view of a thing.

Lateral cleavage (Crystallog.), cleavage parallel to the lateral planes.

Lateral equation (Math.), an equation of the first degree. (Obs.)

Lateral line (Anat.), in fishes, a line of sensory organs along either side of the body, often marked by a distinct line of color.

Lateral pressure or Lateral stress (Mech.), a pressure or stress at right angles to the length, as of a beam or bridge; distinguished from longitudinal pressure or stress.

Lateral strength (Mech.), strength which resists a tendency to fracture arising from lateral pressure.

Lateral system (Bridge Building), the system of horizontal braces (as between two vertical trusses) by which lateral stiffness is secured.

noun

lateral pass, lateral n. (Football)

1.

A short pass to a receiver who is upfield from the passer, i.e. is behind the passer relative to the direction of the passer's goal.

2.

A part or extension of something that points sideways, as a drift in a mine that goes to the side from the main one.

verb

lateral v. t. & v. i. (Football) To pass the footbal to a receiver who is behind the passer; to make a lateral pass; as, the ball was lateraled to the fullback, who ran it for a touchdown.

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Etymology of 'Lateral'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lateral" Quotes from Famous Books

... the contest with the enemy, and it also justified the sagacity of Washington, whose words we have quoted on a previous page. Burgoyne's plans were wholly deranged and instead of relying upon lateral excursions to keep the population in alarm and obtain supplies, he was compelled to procure necessaries as best he might. His rear was exposed, and Stark, acting on his line of policy, prepared to place himself so that Burgoyne might be hemmed in and be, as soon after he was, unable ...

— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing

... at them, to right and left, as he walked through the long, barn-like building, and took in with other glances the inadequate decorations of the graceless interior. His roving eye caught the lettering over the lateral archways, and with a sort of contemptuous compassion he turned into the ...

— The Coast of Bohemia • William Dean Howells

... arranged with the major domo the work of the day, Valencia appeared on the porch dressed for riding. She was going to see the water turned on to the new ditches from the north lateral. ...

— A Daughter of the Dons - A Story of New Mexico Today • William MacLeod Raine

... remarked, her nerves were too many for her; and every one of them was dancing by the time they reached the hall door. The doctor's flourishes lost not a bit of their angularity from his tall, ungainly figure, and a lantern-jawed face, the lower member of which had now and then a somewhat lateral play when he was speaking, which curiously aided the quaint effect of his words. He ushered his guests into the house, seeming ...

— Queechy, Volume I • Elizabeth Wetherell

... the Cambridge that I knew was sufficiently cool to be bracing, but what was of good import in me flourished in it. The life of the place had its lateral limitations; sometimes its lights failed to detect excellent things that lay beyond it; but upward it opened illimitably. I speak of it frankly because that life as I witnessed it is now almost wholly ...

— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

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