Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To be carried or conveyed, as in a vehicle or on horseback.
  • intransitive verb Sports To participate in a board sport such as snowboarding.
  • intransitive verb To travel over a surface.
  • intransitive verb To move by way of an intangible force or impetus; move as if on water.
  • intransitive verb Nautical To lie at anchor.
  • intransitive verb To seem to float.
  • intransitive verb To be sustained or supported on a pivot, axle, or other point.
  • intransitive verb To be contingent; depend.
  • intransitive verb To continue without interference.
  • intransitive verb To work or move from the proper place, especially on the body.
  • intransitive verb To sit on and control the movement of.
  • intransitive verb Sports To glide or move while standing on or having one's feet attached to (a board, such as a snowboard).
  • intransitive verb To travel over, along, or through.
  • intransitive verb To be supported or carried on.
  • intransitive verb To take part in or do by riding.
  • intransitive verb To cause to ride, especially to cause to be carried.
  • intransitive verb Sports To control (an opponent) in wrestling, usually by holding the opponent down.
  • intransitive verb Nautical To keep (a vessel) at anchor.
  • intransitive verb To tease or ridicule.
  • intransitive verb To harass with persistent carping and criticism.
  • intransitive verb To keep partially engaged by slightly depressing a pedal with the foot.
  • noun The act or an instance of riding, as in a vehicle or on an animal.
  • noun A path made for riding on horseback, especially through woodlands.
  • noun A device, such as one at an amusement park, that one rides for pleasure or excitement.
  • noun A means of transportation.
  • idiom (ride for a fall) To court danger or disaster.
  • idiom (ride herd on) To keep watch or control over.
  • idiom (ride high) To experience success.
  • idiom (ride shotgun) To guard a person or thing while in transit.
  • idiom Slang (ride shotgun) To ride in the front passenger seat of a car or truck.
  • idiom (take for a ride) To deceive or swindle.
  • idiom (take for a ride) To transport to a place and kill.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In lawn-bowls, to roll (the ball) with great force.
  • To be carried on the back of a horse, ass, mule, camel, elephant, or other animal; specifically, to sit on and manage a horse in motion.
  • To be borne along in a vehicle, or in or on any kind of conveyance; be carried in or on a wagon, coach, car, balloon, ship, palanquin, bicycle, or the like; hence, in general, to travel or make progress by means of any supporting and moving agency.
  • To be borne in or on a fluid; float; specifically, to lie at anchor.
  • To move on or about something.
  • To be mounted and borne along; hence, to move triumphantly or proudly.
  • To be carted, as a convicted bawd.
  • To have free play; have the upper hand; domineer.
  • To lap or lie over: said especially of a rope when the part on which the strain is brought lies over and jams the other parts.
  • To serve as a means of travel; be in condition to support a rider or traveler: as, that horse rides well under the saddle.
  • In surgery, said of the ends of a fractured bone when they overlap each other.
  • To climb up or rise, as an ill-fitting coat tends to do at the shoulders and the back of the neck.
  • Synonyms and The effort has been made, in both England and America, to confine ride to progression on horseback, and to use drive for progression in a vehicle, but it has not been altogether successful, being checked by the counter-tendency to use drive only where the person in question holds the reins or where the kind of motion is emphasized.
  • To sit on and drive; be carried along on and by: used specifically of a horse.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English riden, from Old English rīdan; see reidh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English riden, Old English rīdan, from Proto-Germanic *rīdanan, from Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ-. Cognate with Dutch rijden, German reiten, Swedish rida; and (from Indo-European) with Welsh rhwyddhau ("hurry").

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