adv. and a. [f. LEFT a. + -WARD.]
A. adv.
1. On the left hand. Also to (the) leftward (of).
1483. Cath. Angl., 212/1. Leftwarde, leuorsum.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), 89. Many a thousande Fast runneth leftwarde, but fewe on the right hande.
1848. Clough, Bothie, ix. 42. Is it well that the soldier whose post is far to the leftward Say, I will go to the right?
1864. Ld. Derby, Iliad, XII. 218. A sign from heav’n Appear’d, to leftward of the astonish’d crowd.
1895. A. Austin, in Blackw. Mag., Nov., 643/2. We soon caught the sound of the sea leftward.
1898. G. W. Steevens, Egypt in 1898, xix. 220. Leftward and behind us is the desert.
2. In the direction of the left hand. Also to (the) leftward.
1579. Digges, Stratiot., 2. Reckning all the characters afore that point leftward.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, XII. 150. Leftward he drove furious.
1814. Cary, Dante, Purg., XXX. 43. I Turn’d me to leftward.
1829. Scott, Anne of G., ix. (end), We have yet, keeping leftward … nearly a mile to make.
1883. Stevenson, in Century Mag., XXVII. 33/2. At the highest point, a trail strikes up the main hill to the leftward.
1885. Miss McConkey, Hero of Cowpens, xiii. 118. He [Burgoyne] extended his intrenchments leftward to the river bank.
B. adj. Situated on the left. Also occas. Directed towards the left.
1813. Scott, Trierm., III. xxiii. Against the leftward foe he flung The ready banner.
1825. Blackw. Mag., XVIII. 452. ’Twas the leftward corridor She glided down.
1886. W. R. Evans, Rustic Walking Routes, 20. In five-eighths of a mile, just beyond a leftward bend.
