other side

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other side

1. (idiomatic, usually preceded by the and sometimes capitalized) The afterlife, as a supernatural realm inhabited by spirits of deceased people.
   • 1906, Mark Twain, “Amended Obituaries”, in The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories:

     [I]t has seemed to me wise to take such measures as may be feasible, to acquire, by courtesy of the press, access to my standing obituaries, with the privilege—if this is not asking too much—of editing, not their Facts, but their Verdicts. This, not for the present profit, further than as concerns my family, but as a favorable influence usable on the Other Side, where there are some who are not friendly to me.

   • 1994 August 8, Pico Iyer, “Death Be Not a Stranger”, in Time:

     They tell us that something is waiting for us on the other side, that death may be a pilgrimage and not a destination, that the afterlife is a warm awakening after the fretful dream of life.

   • 2008 April 8, Mark Rahner, “Psychic John Holland talks to the dead”, in Seattle Times, retrieved 22 July 2011:

     "Well, when people from the other side communicate with me, they're using thought energy, just like you can't see radio waves coming into the radio."

2. (idiomatic, usually preceded by the) The time after the solution or completion of a problem, adversity, or challenge.
   • 2024 August 1, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, “Ravyn Lenae, genius of melody: ‘What’s left out of love songs is the growth on the other side of a breakup’”, in The Guardian:

     That clarity comes through on another highlight, Love Is Blind. “I found this part of myself that I think is left out of a lot of love songs: the growth on the other side.”

3. (UK, slang, dated) The other television channel (when only two were available).

   This is boring. What's on the other side?

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see other,‎ side.

   We crossed to the other side of the road.

• rehoisted, rhodesite, theorised, otherised