sideline interest
- noun
:
interés secundario
- In addition to her full-time job as a teacher, she enjoys painting as a sideline interest.
Examples
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He started writing a novel as a sideline interest while working in finance.
-
Ag policy is a bit of a sideline interest for me.
Blog text (19) -
Many doctors pursue gardening as a sideline interest to alleviate stress.
Synonyms
297
1.0
An activity you do in free time for pleasure
14
4.9
A job or business someone does to earn extra money
5
7.9
A hobby you do for pleasure besides your main job
1
3.7
A small job done in free time to earn extra money
Work you do besides your main paid work to earn extra money
Antonyms
How Major
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents are semantically transparent: 'sideline' denotes an additional activity or secondary job and 'interest' denotes a hobby or engagement, so their combination directly yields 'an interest pursued as a secondary activity.' This noun + noun compositional pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Sideline interest may come from the picture of sideline as a smaller 'line' of work at the 'side' of your main job, like a shop owner who sells small items beside their main stall. So the phrase means 'a hobby or second job' someone does in addition to their main work.