ride
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹaɪd/
rhymes: -aɪd
Forms: form: rides
form: riding
form: rode
form: rade
form: rid
form: ridden
form: rode
Etymology: From Middle English riden, from Old English rīdan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīdan, from Proto-Germanic *rīdaną, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreydʰ-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reyH-.
Cognates
From Proto-Germanic: North Frisian ride (“to ride”), Saterland Frisian riede (“to ride”), West Frisian ride (“to ride”), Low German rieden (“to ride”), Dutch rijden (“to ride”), German reiten (“to ride”), Danish ride (“to ride”), Swedish rida (“to ride”).
From Indo-European: Welsh rhwyddhau (“to hurry”).
Senses: examples: text: I ride to work every day and park the bike outside the office.
text: Go Peto, to horse: for thou, and I, / Haue thirtie miles to ride yet ere dinner time.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: […] I will take my horse early to-morrow morning and ride over to Stoke, and settle with one of them.
ref: 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 310:
text: He rid to the end of the village, where he alighted and ſent a man thence to Mr. Tuſher with a meſſage that a gentleman of London would ſpeak to him on urgent buſineſs.
ref: 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, “I Go on the Vigo Bay Expedition, Taste Salt Water and Smell Powder”, in The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. […] , volume II, London: […] Smith, Elder, & Company, […], →OCLC, page 96:
text: It is characteristic of her that she hates trains, that she arrives from a rail-road journey a nervous wreck; but that she can ride a horse steadily for weeks through the most dangerous western passes.
ref: 1923 April 28, “Mrs. Rinehart”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: 'He would have rid that horse, too,' pa says, 'if I hadn't a stopped him. A durn spotted critter wilder than a catty-mount. A deliberate flouting of her and me.'
ref: 1930, William Faulkner, “Darl”, in As I Lay Dying (Penguin Modern Classics), Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books in association with Chatto & Windus, published 1980, →ISBN, page 81:
text: The original winner Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia was relegated after riding too aggressively to storm from fourth to first on the final bend.
ref: 2010 October 6, “(please specify the article title)”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC:
glosses: To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc.
examples: text: Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
text: In an elaborately built, indoor San Francisco, passengers ride cable cars through quiet, hilly streets.
ref: 1960 June 20, “Biznelcmd”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC:
glosses: To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger.
examples: text: The cab rode him downtown.
glosses: To transport (someone) in a vehicle.
examples: text: Why name I ev'ry Place where Youths abound? / 'Tis Loſs of Time; and a too fruitful Ground. / The Bajan Baths, where Ships at Anchor ride, / And wholeſome Streams from Sulphur Fountains glide: […]
ref: a. 1701, [John] Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Art of Love. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1709, →OCLC, pages 19–20:
text: By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home […]
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:
glosses: Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water.
examples: text: The witch cackled and rode away on her broomstick.
glosses: To be carried or supported by something lightly and quickly; to travel in such a way, as though on horseback.
examples: text: Early women tobogganists rode the course in the requisite attire of their day: skirts. In spite of this hindrance, some women riders turned in very respectable performances.
ref: 1999, David Levinson, Karen Christensen, Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present:
glosses: To traverse by riding.
examples: text: How many races have you ridden this year?
text: The only men that safe can ride / Mine errands on the Scottish side.
ref: 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC:
glosses: To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding.
examples: text: Now the question is: Can Lema ride his present impetus to a third tournament victory in the pressure-loaded Open or will he run out of steam?
ref: 1964 June 16, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:
text: By labeling milk free of the artificial hormone, the dairy industry can ride the popularity of natural foods, without the greater expense and special feeds required to produce milk that can be fully certified as “organic.”
ref: 2006 October 7, Andrew Pollack, “Which Cows Do You Trust?”, in The New York Times:
glosses: To exploit or take advantage of (a situation).
examples: text: A horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast.
glosses: To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle.
examples: text: She rode him hard, and he squeezed her breasts, and she came again.
ref: 1997, Linda Howard, Son of the Morning, page 345:
text: Isis rode my mug like she was on a ten-inch dick, and as soon as she nutted I tossed her ass off a me and flipped her on her back, then fucked the shit outta her cause it was payback time.
ref: 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 152:
glosses: To mount (someone) to have sex with them.
glosses: To have sex with (someone).
examples: text: “One old boy started riding me about not having gone to Vietnam; I just spit my coffee at him, and he backed off.
ref: 2002, Myra MacPherson, Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the haunted generation, page 375:
glosses: To nag or criticize; to annoy (someone).
examples: text: In athletics, triple jumper Ashia Hansen advises a thong for training because, while knickers ride up, ‘thongs have nowhere left to go’: but in Beijing Britain's best are likely, she says, to forgo knickers altogether, preferring to go commando for their country under their GB kit.
ref: 2008 July 27, Ann Kessel, The Guardian:
glosses: Of clothing: to gradually move (up) and crease; to ruckle.
examples: text: With so much riding on the new payments system, it was thus a grave embarrassment to the government when the tariff for 2006-07 had to be withdrawn for amendments towards the end of February.
ref: 2006 March 9, “Grappling with deficits”, in The Economist:
glosses: To rely, depend (on).
examples: text: She's wearing inky-blue jeans that ride low enough on her hips that her aquamarine thong peeks out teasingly at the back.
ref: 2001 September 16, Jenny Eliscu, “Oops...she's doing it again”, in The Observer:
glosses: Of clothing: to rest (in a given way on a part of the body).
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lacrosse
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To play defense on the defensemen or midfielders, as an attackman.
examples: text: The nobility[…] could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, coblers[sic], brewers, and the like.
ref: 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit:
glosses: To manage insolently at will; to domineer over.
topics: medicine
sciences
surgery
glosses: To overlap (each other); said of bones or fractured fragments.
examples: text: vocal riding
text: The board operator normally watches the meter scale marked for modulation percentage, riding the gain to bring volume peaks into the 85% to 100% range.
ref: 2006, Simran Kohli, Radio Jockey Handbook:
text: “You don't want them riding the volume knob, so that's why you learn how to do your levels properly to make the whole thing transparent for the listener. […]
ref: 2017, Michael O'Connell, Turn Up the Volume: A Down and Dirty Guide to Podcasting, page 22:
topics: broadcasting
media
radio
television
glosses: To monitor (some component of an audiovisual signal) in order to keep it within acceptable bounds.
examples: text: The quintet in Propheticape muses out-of-measured-time until Holland leads it into swift, riding jazz.
ref: 2000, Max Harrison, Charles Fox, Eric Thacker, The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to postmodernism, page 238:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: In jazz, to play in a steady rhythmical style.
Synonyms: sense: to have sexual intercourse
word: do it
word: get it on
word: copulate
Derived terms: sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride a hobby
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride a horse foaled by an acorn
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride a horse foaled of an acorn
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride-along
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride along
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride and tie
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride bitch
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride by
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride dirty
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride down
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride down on
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride fence
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride fences
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride for
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride hard
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride hard and put away wet
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride herd on
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride high
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride off
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride off into the sunset
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride-on
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride on
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride on a rail
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride one's bumper
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride one's luck
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride on the back of
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride or die
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: rideout
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride out
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride out the storm
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride over
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride pillion
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride rantipole
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride roughshod over
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride rusty
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride shank's mare
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride shotgun
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride someone hard and put them away wet
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride someone's ass
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride St. George
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride tall in the saddle
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the bench
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the boards
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the brakes
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the circuit
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the clock
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the clutch
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the coattails
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the cock carousel
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the cotton bicycle
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the cotton horse
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the cotton pony
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the crest of the wave
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the fair
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the high horse
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the lightning
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the pine
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the pony
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the rail
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the rails
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the rods
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the short bus
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the three-legged mare
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the tiger
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride the wave
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride to hounds
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride up
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride up on
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride with
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: ride with the punches
sense: With this term at the beginning
word: test-ride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: beride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: be riding for a fall
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: hail and ride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: hand-ride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: joyride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: kiss and ride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: let something ride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: like riding a bike
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: outride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: override
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: park and ride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: park-and-ride
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil
sense: With this term at the end or middle
word: upride