English Reference
noun

sidecar

n.
UK /sˈaɪdkɑː/ side·car UK spelling sidecars

  1. 01 B2 Upper Intermediate

    a small, one-wheeled seat attached to the side of a motorcycle for a passenger.

    a one-wheeled vehicle or compartment attached to the side of a motorcycle to accommodate a passenger or cargo.

    Simple

    The old motorcycle had a sidecar so the dog could ride along with his owner.

    In context

    Vintage enthusiasts often restore the motorcycle and sidecar as a single unit to maintain the aesthetic of mid-century touring vehicles.

    attachmentpassenger car
  2. 02 C2 Proficiency Technical Computing

    a small program that runs next to a main application to help it work better, like a helper.

    a design pattern where a secondary process or container runs alongside a primary application to provide supporting features like logging or security.

    Simple

    The developers added a sidecar to the application to handle all the security checks automatically.

    In context

    By deploying a sidecar for service mesh integration, the engineering team decoupled the networking logic from the core business application code.

    Usage

    Commonly used in the context of microservices and container orchestration like Kubernetes.

    helper processproxy

From side + car.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Level C2 · Proficiency
Frequency Occasional
Updated