step aside

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step aside (third-person singular simple present steps aside, present participle stepping aside, simple past and past participle stepped aside)

1. (intransitive) To move out of the way of somebody or something.

   I stepped aside to let her pass.

2. (intransitive, figurative) To make room for others as replacements by withdrawing from a position or service.

   Coordinate term: step down

   • 2016 October 8, Katie Glueck, quoting Carly Fiorina, “Top Republican women pull support from Trump”, in Politico‎^[1]:

     She added: “Today I ask Donald Trump to step aside and for the RNC to replace him with Gov. Mike Pence.”

3. (intransitive) To deviate from the right or proper path; to err or stray.
   • 18th c., Robert Burns, Address to the Unco Guid, or The Rigidly Righteous:

     To step aside is human.

4. (intransitive) To walk to a little distance; retire for the occasion.

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “step aside”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “step aside”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.