ride

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-.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɹaɪd/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪd

ride (third-person singular simple present rides, present participle riding, simple past rode or (obsolete) rade or (obsolete) rid, past participle ridden or (now colloquial and nonstandard) rode)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc. [from 8th c., transitive usage from 9th c.]

   I ride to work every day and park the bike outside the office.

   • 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):

     Go Peto, to horse: for thou, and I, / Haue thirtie miles to ride yet ere dinner time.

   • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 310:

     […] I will take my horse early to-morrow morning and ride over to Stoke, and settle with one of them.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1923 April 28, “Mrs. Rinehart”, in Time:

     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.

   • 2010 October 6, The Guardian:

     The original winner Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia was relegated after riding too aggressively to storm from fourth to first on the final bend.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger. [from 9th c., transitive usage from 19th c.]
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1960 June 20, “Biznelcmd”, in Time:

     In an elaborately built, indoor San Francisco, passengers ride cable cars through quiet, hilly streets.

3. (transitive, informal, chiefly US and South Africa) To transport (someone) in a vehicle. [from 17th c.]

   The cab rode him downtown.

4. (intransitive) Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water. [from 10th c.]
   • a. 1701, [John] Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Art of Love. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1709, →OCLC, pages 19–20:

     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: […]

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

     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. (transitive, intransitive) To be carried or supported by something lightly and quickly; to travel in such a way, as though on horseback. [from 10th c.]

   The witch cackled and rode away on her broomstick.

6. (transitive) To traverse by riding.
   • 1999, David Levinson, Karen Christensen, Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present:

     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. (transitive) To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding.

   How many races have you ridden this year?

   • 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:

     The only men that safe can ride / Mine errands on the Scottish side.

8. (transitive, figuratively) To exploit or take advantage of (a situation).
   • 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:

     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?

   • 2006 October 7, Andrew Pollack, “Which Cows Do You Trust?”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     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. (intransitive) To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle.

   A horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast.

10. (transitive, intransitive, slang) To mount (someone) to have sex with them. [from 13th c.]
    • 1997, Linda Howard, Son of the Morning, page 345:

      She rode him hard, and he squeezed her breasts, and she came again.

    • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 152:

      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.

11. (transitive, intransitive, Ireland, slang) To have sex with (someone).
12. (transitive, colloquial) To nag or criticize; to annoy (someone). [from 19th c.]
    • 2002, Myra MacPherson, Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the haunted generation, page 375:

      “One old boy started riding me about not having gone to Vietnam; I just spit my coffee at him, and he backed off.

13. (intransitive) Of clothing: to gradually move (up) and crease; to ruckle. [from 19th c.]
    • 2008 July 27, Ann Kessel, The Guardian:

      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. (intransitive) To rely, depend (on). [from 20th c.]
    • 2006 March 9, “Grappling with deficits”, in The Economist:

      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. (intransitive) Of clothing: to rest (in a given way on a part of the body). [from 20th c.]
    • 2001 September 16, Jenny Eliscu, “Oops...she's doing it again”, in The Observer:

      She's wearing inky-blue jeans that ride low enough on her hips that her aquamarine thong peeks out teasingly at the back.

16. (lacrosse) To play defense on the defensemen or midfielders, as an attackman.
17. To manage insolently at will; to domineer over.
    • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit:

      The nobility […] could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, coblers[sic], brewers, and the like.

18. (surgery) To overlap (each other); said of bones or fractured fragments.
19. (radio, television, transitive) To monitor (some component of an audiovisual signal) in order to keep it within acceptable bounds.

    vocal riding

    • 2006, Simran Kohli, Radio Jockey Handbook:

      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.

    • 2017, Michael O'Connell, Turn Up the Volume: A Down and Dirty Guide to Podcasting, page 22:

      “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. […]

20. (music) In jazz, to play in a steady rhythmical style.
    • 2000, Max Harrison, Charles Fox, Eric Thacker, The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to postmodernism, page 238:

      The quintet in Propheticape muses out-of-measured-time until Holland leads it into swift, riding jazz.

• (to have sexual intercourse): do it, get it on; see also Thesaurus:copulate

ride (plural rides)

1. An instance of riding.

   Can I have a ride on your bike?

   We took the horses for an early-morning ride in the woods.

   go for a quick ride

2. (informal) A vehicle.

   That's a nice ride; what did it cost?

   pimp my ride

3. An amusement ridden at a fair or amusement park.

   the kids went on all the rides

4. A lift given to someone in another person's vehicle.

   Can you give me a ride home?

5. (UK) A road or avenue cut in a wood, for riding; a bridleway or other wide country path.
   • 2015, Roderic Jeffries, Death in the Coverts, →ISBN:

     "Could you see the ride that goes down and round the point of the woods...?"
     "I could see down it till it went round the corner."...
     "...Then Mr Fawcett comes down the ride, rushing his chair along like it was a racing car... He carried on down the ride. Next thing Miss Harmsworth comes down the ride from the field..."

6. (UK, dialect, archaic) A saddle horse.
   • 1904, Country Gentleman:

     Stella, who in her day was a beautiful ride.

7. (Ireland) A person (or sometimes a thing or a place) that is visually attractive.
   • 2007 July 14, Michael O'Neill, “Re: More mouthy ineffectual poseurs...[was Re: Live Earth - One Of The Most Important Events On This Particular Planet - don't let SCI distract you”, in soc.culture.irish (Usenet):

     Absolutely, and I agree about Madonna. An absolute ride *still*. :-) M.

8. (jazz) A steady rhythmical style.

   She's playing cheerful music on the ride cymbal!

9. (figurative) A wild, bewildering experience of some duration.

   That story was a ride from start to finish.

   • 2002, “Manila”, performed by Seelenluft ft. Michael Smith:

     We all started to dance / Without wearing no life vest / We all started to dance / It was quite a ride

10. (slang, vulgar) An act of sexual intercourse.

    Synonyms: shag, fuck, cop, bang

    I gave my boyfriend a ride before breakfast.

11. A district inspected by an excise officer.
12. (printing, historical) A fault caused by the overlapping of leads, etc.

• Deri, Dier, IDer, Reid, dier, dire, drie, ired

• IPA^(key): /riːðə/, [ˈʁiːðə], [ˈʁiðð̩]
• Rhymes: -iːdə

Borrowed from Faroese ryta, rita or Icelandic rita, from Old Norse rytr, derived from the verb rjóta (“to cry”), from the verb Proto-Germanic *reutaną.

ride c (singular definite riden, plural indefinite rider)

1. black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

From Old Norse ríða, from Proto-Germanic *rīdaną, cognate with English ride, German reiten.

ride (past tense red, past participle redet, c reden, definite or plural redne)

1. to ride (to sit on the back of an animal)
2. (slang) to have intercourse with (sex position with one person sitting on top of another like on a horse)

• ridetur
• ridning

From rider.

• IPA^(key): /ʁid/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -id

ride f (plural rides)

1. wrinkle, line (on face etc.)
2. ripple
3. ridge

• ridé
• rider

ride

1. inflection of rider:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “ride”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• dire

ride

1. second-person plural imperative of rir

• IPA^(key): /ˈri.de/
• Rhymes: -ide
• Hyphenation: rì‧de

ride

1. third-person singular present indicative of ridere

• Drei, Redi, dire, idre, redi

rīdē

1. second-person singular present active imperative of rīdeō

ride

1. Alternative form of riden

• ridj (Föhr-Amrum)
• rir (Sylt)

From Old Frisian rīda, from Proto-West Germanic *rīdan. Cognates include West Frisian ride.

• (Mooring) IPA^(key): [ˈrɪdə]

ride

1. (Mooring) to ride (on a horse, mount)

• ri

From Old Norse ríða.

ride (imperative rid, present tense rider, passive rides, simple past red or rei, past participle ridd, present participle ridende)

1. to ride (e.g. a horse)

• ridedyr
• ridepisk
• ridning

• “ride” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

ride (present tense rid, past tense reid, past participle ride or ridd or ridt, present participle ridande, imperative rid)

1. Alternative form of rida

• ridedyr
• ridepisk

ride

1. second-person plural imperative of rir

From Old Frisian rīda, from Proto-West Germanic *rīdan.

• IPA^(key): /ˈridə/, /ˈriːdə/

ride

1. (intransitive) to ride
2. (transitive, intransitive) to drive

• “ride (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011