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ride

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Appendix:Variations of "ride"

English

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Etymology

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    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

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    Verb

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    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. (ambitransitive) 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.
    2. (ambitransitive) To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger. [from 9th c., transitive usage from 19th c.]
    3. (transitive, informal, chiefly US and South Africa) To transport (someone) in a vehicle. [from 17th c.]
      The cab rode him downtown.
      • 1954, Ian Fleming, “No Sensayuma”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 73:
        'Hurt him considerably. Ride him down to Bellevue Hospital and dump him nearby. Got that?' 'Yassuh.' 'Don't be seen.' 'Nossuh.'
    4. (intransitive) Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water. [from 10th c.]
    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?
    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[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 March 2025:
        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. (ambitransitive, slang) To mount (someone) to have sex with them. [from 13th c.]
      • 1986, Sidney Brinkley, “Passion”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 131:
        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.
      • 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. (ambitransitive, 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[3], archived from the original on 15 October 2026:
        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, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
        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[4], archived from the original on 15 October 2026:
        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.
    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.

    Conjugation

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    Conjugation of ride
    infinitive (to) ride
    present tense past tense
    1st-person singular ride rode, rid†, rade†
    2nd-person singular ride, ridest† rode, rodest†, rid†, rade†
    3rd-person singular rides, rideth† rode, rid†, rade†
    plural ride
    subjunctive ride rode, rid†, rade†
    imperative ride —
    participles riding ridden, rode (now colloquial and nonstandard), rade†

    † Archaic or obsolete.

    Synonyms

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    Derived terms

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    With this term at the beginning
    With this term at the end or middle

    Translations

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    of clothing: to rest on a part of the body

    Noun

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    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
      • 2020, clipping., “Check the Lock”, in Visions of Bodies Being Burned‎[5], via Spotify:
        Never park right outside where he live
        He don't want his ride outside his crib
        'Cause they might roll by, recognize it
        And then come inside at night ready to fire with
        Guns like he ain't got none
    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.
      • 1913, Rudyard Kipling, “The Edge of the Evening”, in A Diversity of Creatures, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 276:
        We walked, perhaps, half a mile […] , and came out suddenly, where five rides met, at a small classic temple between lichened stucco statues which faced a circle of turf, several acres in extent.
      • 2015, Roderic Jeffries, Death in the Coverts, →ISBN:
        "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.
    9. Ellipsis of ride cymbal.
    10. (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
    11. (slang, vulgar) An act of sexual intercourse.
      Synonyms: shag, fuck, cop, bang
      I gave my boyfriend a ride before breakfast.
    12. A district inspected by an excise officer.
    13. (printing, historical) A fault caused by the overlapping of leads, etc.

    Derived terms

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    Translations

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    Anagrams

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    Corsican

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    Inherited from Late Latin rīdere, from Latin rīdēre.

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈri.de/
    • Hyphenation: ri‧de

    Verb

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    ride

    1. to laugh

    Conjugation

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        Cismontane conjugation of ride (transitive, intransitive)
    infinitive ride
    present participle ridendu
    past participle risu
    person singular plural
    first second third first second third
    indicative eiu tù ellu/ella noi voi elli/elle
    present ridu ridi ride ridimu ridite ridenu
    imperfect ridia ridii ridia ridiamu ridiate ridianu
    simple past risi ridisti rise risimu ridiste risenu
    future rideraghju riderai, riderè riderà rideremu riderete rideranu
    conditional rideria, riderebbi riderii, rideresti, rideristi rideria, riderebbe rideriamu, riderebbimu rideriate, ridereste, rideriste riderianu, riderebbenu
    subjunctive eiu tù ellu/ella noi voi elli/elle
    present ridi ridi ridi ridimu ridite ridinu
    imperfect ridissi ridissi ridissi ridissimu ridissite ridissinu
    imperative – tù – noi voi –
    — ridi — ridimu ridite —

    References

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    • “ride”, in INFCOR: Banca di dati di a lingua corsa [Database of the Corsican language], 1999-
    • “ride” in Aiaccinu: Cunghjugatori corsu

    Danish

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    Danish Wikipedia has articles on:
    Wikipedia daWikipedia da

    Pronunciation

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

    Etymology 1

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    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.

    Noun

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    ride c (singular definite riden, plural indefinite rider)

    1. black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)
    Declension
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    Declension of ride
    common
    gender     		singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative ride riden rider riderne
    genitive rides ridens riders ridernes

    Etymology 2

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

    Verb

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    ride (imperative rid, present rider, past red, past participle n redet, c reden, pl 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)
    Conjugation
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    Conjugation of ride
    active passive
    infinitive ride rides
    present rider rides
    past red —
    imperative rid —
    participle
    present ridende
    past (have / havde) redet
    gerund riden
    Derived terms
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    References

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    French

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    Etymology

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    From rider.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    ride f (plural rides)

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

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    ride

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

    Further reading

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    Anagrams

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    Galician

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    Verb

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    ride

    1. second-person plural imperative of rir

    Italian

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    Pronunciation

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

    Verb

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    ride

    1. third-person singular present indicative of ridere

    Anagrams

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    Latin

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    Verb

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    rīdē

    1. second-person singular present active imperative of rīdeō

    Middle English

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    Verb

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    ride

    1. alternative form of riden

    North Frisian

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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

    Pronunciation

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    Verb

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    ride

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

    Conjugation

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    Conjugation of ride (Mooring dialect)
    infinitive I ride
    infinitive II (tu) riden
    infinitive III än rid
    past participle ran
    imperative rid
      present past
    1st-person singular rid riidj
    2nd-person singular ratst riidjst
    3rd-person singular rat riidj
    plural ride riidjen
      perfect pluperfect
    1st-person singular ban ran wus ran
    2nd-person singular bast ran wjarst ran
    3rd-person singular as ran wus ran
    plural san ran wjarn ran
      future (schale) future (wårde)
    1st-person singular schal ride wård ride
    2nd-person singular schäät ride wårst ride
    3rd-person singular schal ride wårt ride
    plural schan ride wårde ride

    Norwegian Bokmål

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    From Old Norse ríða.

    Verb

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    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)

    Derived terms

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    References

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    Norwegian Nynorsk

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    Verb

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

    1. alternative form of rida

    Derived terms

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    Old English

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    Pronunciation

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    Verb

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    rīde

    1. inflection of rīdan:
      1. first-person singular present indicative
      2. singular present subjunctive

    Verb

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    ride

    1. inflection of rīdan:
      1. second-person singular preterite indicative
      2. singular preterite subjunctive

    Portuguese

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    Verb

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    ride

    1. second-person plural imperative of rir

    West Frisian

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    Etymology

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

    Pronunciation

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    • IPA(key): /ˈridə/, /ˈriːdə/

    Verb

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    ride

    1. (intransitive) to ride
    2. (ambitransitive) to drive

    Inflection

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    Strong class 1
    infinitive ride
    3rd singular past ried
    past participle riden
    infinitive ride
    long infinitive riden
    gerund riden n
    auxiliary hawwe
    indicative present tense past tense
    1st singular ryd ried
    2nd singular rydst riedst
    clitic form rydsto riedsto
    3rd singular rydt ried
    plural ride rieden
    imperative ryd
    participles ridend riden

    Further reading

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    • “ride (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=ride&oldid=94591442"