adv. and prep. [properly a phrase, ALONG prep. + SIDE.]
A. adv. Along or parallel to the side (of something expressed or understood). a. simply, Close to the side of the ship.
1707. Lond. Gaz., mmmmccclxxx/2. The Enemy would not come up a long Side.
1769. Douglas, in Phil. Trans., LX. 41. A case, filled with water from along-side.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., III. 13. The naked hulk alongside came.
1833. Marryat, Pet. Simp. (1863), 207. ‘I thought, Mr. Simple, that you knew by this time how to bring a boat alongside.’
1851. Dixon, Will. Penn, xvii. (1872), 149. The boat-men … used their oars as if they had been ordered to come alongside.
b. with of: Parallel to or close by the side of, side by side with; also fig.
1781. Westm. Mag., IX. 167. We chased, and at noon got along-side of her.
1822. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 347. A new authority, marching independently along-side of the government.
1870. Hawthorne, Eng. Note-Bks. (1879), I. 264. Alongside of a sheet of water.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 74. And the fig attains perfection almost alongside of the oak and fir.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. v. 264. Alongside of him stood his maternal uncle. Ibid., V. xxiv. 385. Alongside of reliefs and wardships, the Danegeld was duly levied.
B. prep. [of omitted.] In a position parallel to; side by side with.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 100. A boat … lying alongside the rock.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxvi. 448. She only bowed and kept alongside her companion.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 90. Hauled up alongside a barge.
