sidelong vs sideways

sidelong

adj
  • Directed to the side; sideways. 

  • Slanting or sloping; oblique. 

  • Indirect; suggestive; not straightforward. 

  • Along the side of something. 

adv
  • obliquely 

  • Towards the side; sideways. 

sideways

adj
  • Positioned sideways (with a side to the front). 

  • Not as planned; towards a worse outcome. 

  • In conflict (with); not compatible (with). 

  • Moving or directed toward one side. 

  • Neither moving upward nor moving downward. 

adv
  • Askance; sidelong. 

  • With a side to the front. 

  • Neither upward nor downward. 

  • Towards one side. 

How often have the words sidelong and sideways occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )