lateral

lateral
    adj 1: situated at or extending to the side; "the lateral
           branches of a tree"; "shot out sidelong boughs"- Tennyson
           [syn: {lateral}, {sidelong}]
    2: lying away from the median and sagittal plane of a body;
       "lateral lemniscus"
    n 1: a pass to a receiver upfield from the passer [syn: {lateral
         pass}, {lateral}]
    

Lateral \Lat"er*al\, a. [L. lateralis, fr. latus, lateris, side:
   cf. F. lat['e]ral.]
   1. Of or pertaining to the sides; as, the lateral walls of a
      house; the lateral branches of a tree.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Anat.) Lying at, or extending toward, the side; away from
      the mesial plane; external; -- opposed to {mesial}.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Directed to the side; as, a lateral view of a thing.
      [1913 Webster]

   {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 {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.
      [1913 Webster] lateral
    

lateral \lat"er*al\, lateral pass \lat"er*al pass`\, 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.
      [PJC]

   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.
      [PJC]
    

lateral \lat"er*al\, v. t. & 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.
   [PJC]
    

205 Moby Thesaurus words for "lateral":
      accented, allophone, alveolar, apical, apico-alveolar,
      apico-dental, articulated, articulation, aspiration, assimilated,
      assimilation, back, barytone, bifacial, bilabial, bilateral, bowl,
      broad, cacuminal, cast, central, cerebral, change of pace,
      change-up, check, checked, chuck, chunk, close, consonant,
      consonantal, continuant, curve, dental, dihedral, diphthong,
      dissimilated, dissimilation, dorsal, downcurve, edge,
      epenthetic vowel, explosive, fastball, flanked, flanking, flat,
      fling, flip, forward pass, front, glancing, glide, glossal,
      glottal, glottalization, go crabwise, go sideways, guttural,
      handed, hard, heave, heavy, high, hurl, incurve, intonated,
      knuckleball, labial, labialization, labiodental, labiovelar,
      laryngeal, lateral pass, lateralize, lax, lee, leeward, light,
      lingual, liquid, lob, low, make leeway, manner of articulation,
      many-sided, mid, modification, monophthong, monophthongal,
      morphophoneme, multilateral, mute, muted, narrow, nasal, nasalized,
      next-beside, occlusive, one-sided, open, outcurve, oxytone,
      palatal, palatalized, parasitic vowel, pass, peak, peg, pharyngeal,
      pharyngealization, pharyngealized, phone, phoneme, phonemic,
      phonetic, phonic, pitch, pitched, plosive, polyhedral, posttonic,
      prothetic vowel, put, quadrilateral, retroflex, rounded, screwball,
      segmental phoneme, semivowel, serve, service, shot-put, shy, side,
      sided, sideling, sidelong, sideslip, sidestep, sideward, sidewards,
      sideway, sideways, sidewise, sidle, sinker, skew, skid, skirting,
      slider, sling, soft, sonant, sonority, speech sound, spitball,
      spitter, stop, stopped, stressed, strong, surd, syllabic,
      syllabic nucleus, syllabic peak, syllable, tense, tetrahedral,
      thick, three-sided, throaty, throw, tonal, tonic, toss,
      transition sound, trihedral, trilateral, triphthong, triquetrous,
      twangy, two-sided, unaccented, unilateral, unrounded, unstressed,
      upcurve, veer, velar, vocable, vocalic, vocoid, voice, voiced,
      voiced sound, voiceless, voiceless sound, voicing, vowel,
      vowellike, weak, weather, wide, windward