Word: ride Part of Speech: verb Etymology: From Middle English riden, from Old English rīdan, from Proto-West Germanic *rīdan, from Proto-Germanic *rīdaną (“to ride”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreydʰ- (“to ride”), from *h₃reyH- (“to move”), from *h₃er- (“to move, stir”). Cognates From Proto-Germanic: North Frisian ride, ridj, rir (“to ride”), West Frisian ride (“to ride”), Dutch rijden, ryden (“to ride; to drive”), German reiten, reuten (“to ride”), German Low German rieden (“to ride; to drive”), Limburgish rieje (“to ride; to drive”), Luxembourgish reiden (“to ride”), Vilamovian raeita, rajta (“to ride”), Danish ride (“to ride”), Faroese and Icelandic ríða (“to ride”), Norwegian Bokmål ri, ride (“to ride”), Norwegian Nynorsk ri, rida, ride (“to ride”), Swedish rida (“to ride”). From Indo-European: Cornish ardh (“height”), Irish arad, ard, árd (“high, tall”), Manx ard (“high, tall”), Scottish Gaelic àrd (“high”), Welsh ardd (“hill, upland”), Latin irrītō (“to excite, incite, stimulate; to exasperate”), Ancient Greek ὀρῑ́νω (orī́nō, “to move, stir”), Albanian rashë (“to have fallen; to have flopped”), Russian ре́ять (réjatʹ, “to fly, hover, soar”), Armenian հառնել (haṙnel, “to get up; to rise up”), Northern Kurdish rîtin (“to shit”), Persian ریدن (ridan, “to shit; to fuck up, to screw up”), Tocharian A ar- (“to evoke; to produce, yield”), Tocharian B er- (“to evoke; to produce, yield”), Hittite 𒅈𒉡𒊻𒍣 (ar-nu-uz-zi, “to address, send”), Sanskrit रीति (rīti, “course, motion; current, stream; line, row”). Pronunciation: /ɹaɪd/ 1. To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc. Labels: ambitransitive Example: I ride to work every day and park the bike outside the office. Example: Go Peto, to horse: for thou, and I, / Haue thirtie miles to ride yet ere dinner time. 2. To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger. Labels: ambitransitive Example: 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. Example: In an elaborately built, indoor San Francisco, passengers ride cable cars through quiet, hilly streets. 3. To transport (someone) in a vehicle. Labels: South-Africa, US, informal, transitive Example: The cab rode him downtown. Example: 'Hurt him considerably. Ride him down to Bellevue Hospital and dump him nearby. Got that?' 'Yassuh.' 'Don't be seen.' 'Nossuh.' 4. Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water. Labels: intransitive Example: 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: […] Example: 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 […] 5. To be carried or supported by something lightly and quickly; to travel in such a way, as though on horseback. Labels: intransitive, transitive Example: The witch cackled and rode away on her broomstick. 6. To traverse by riding. Labels: transitive Example: 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. 7. To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding. Labels: transitive Example: How many races have you ridden this year? Example: The only men that safe can ride / Mine errands on the Scottish side. 8. To exploit or take advantage of (a situation). Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: 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? Example: 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.” 9. To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle. Labels: intransitive Example: A horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast. 10. To mount (someone) to have sex with them. Labels: ambitransitive, slang Example: Cowboy. That's what he calls me when we are like this. It's as if I'm sitting in a saddle and he is my horse. And when he starts to buck, I ride. Example: She rode him hard, and he squeezed her breasts, and she came again. 11. To have sex with (someone). Labels: Ireland, ambitransitive, slang 12. To nag or criticize; to annoy (someone). Labels: colloquial, transitive Example: “One old boy started riding me about not having gone to Vietnam; I just spit my coffee at him, and he backed off. 13. Of clothing: to gradually move (up) and crease; to ruckle. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. 14. To rely, depend (on). Labels: intransitive Example: 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. 15. Of clothing: to rest (in a given way on a part of the body). Labels: intransitive Example: She's wearing inky-blue jeans that ride low enough on her hips that her aquamarine thong peeks out teasingly at the back. 16. To play defense on the defensemen or midfielders, as an attackman. 17. To manage insolently at will; to domineer over. Example: The nobility[…] could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, coblers[sic], brewers, and the like. 18. To overlap (each other); said of bones or fractured fragments. 19. To monitor (some component of an audiovisual signal) in order to keep it within acceptable bounds. Labels: transitive Example: vocal riding Example: 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. 20. In jazz, to play in a steady rhythmical style. Example: The quintet in Propheticape muses out-of-measured-time until Holland leads it into swift, riding jazz.