What does "ride" mean?
Ride: To be borne in a carriage; as, to ride in a coach, in a car, and the like. See Synonym, below. The richest inhabitants exhibited their wealth, not by riding in gilden carriages, but by walking the streets with trains of servants. Macaulay.
Additional senses
- 2.To be borne or in a fluid; to float; to lie. Men once walked where ships at anchor ride. Dryden.
- 3.To be supported in motion; to rest. Strong as the exletree On which heaven rides. Shak. On whose foolish honesty My practices ride easy! Shak.
- 4.To manage a horse, as an equestrian. He rode, he fenced, he moved with graceful ease. Dryden.
- 5.To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle; as, a horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast. To ride easy (Naut.), to lie at anchor without violent pitching or straining at the cables. -- To ride hard (Naut.), to pitch violently. -- To ride out. (a) To go upon a military expedition. [Obs.] Chaucer. (b) To ride in the open air. [Colloq.] -- To ride to hounds, to ride behind, and near to, the hounds in hunting. -- Ride, Drive. Ride originally meant (and is so used throughout the English Bible) to be carried on horseback or in a vehicle of any kind. At present in England, drive is the word applied in most cases to progress in a carriage; as, a drive around the park, etc.; while ride is appropriated to progress on a horse. Johnson seems to sanction this distinction by giving "to travel on horseback" as the leading sense of ride; though he adds "to travel in a vehicle" as a secondary sense. This latter use of the word still occurs to some extent; as, the queen rides to Parliament in her coach of state; to ride in an omnibus. "Will you ride over or drive" said Lord Willowby to his quest, after breakfast that morning. W. Black.
- 6.To sit on, so as to be carried; as, to ride a horse; to ride a bicycle. [They] rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air In whirlwind. Milton.
- 7.To manage insolently at will; to domineer over. The nobility could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, cobblers, and brewers. Swift.
- 8.To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding. Tue only men that safe can ride Mine errands on the Scottish side. Sir W. Scott.
- 9.(Surg.) To overlap (each other); -- said of bones or fractured fragments. To ride a hobby, to have some favorite occupation or subject of talk. -- To ride and tie, to take turn with another in labor and rest; -- from the expedient adopted by two persons with one horse, one of whom rides the animal a certain distance, and then ties him for the use of the other, who is coming up on foot. Fielding. -- To ride down. (a) To ride over; to trample down in riding; to overthrow by riding against; as, to ride down an enemy. (b) (Naut.) To bear down, as on a halyard when hoisting a sail. -- To ride out (Naut.), to keep safe afloat during (a storm) while riding at anchor or when hove to on the open sea; as, to ride out the gale. to ride the lightning, (Colloq.) to be executed by electrocution in an electric chair.
- 10.The act of riding; an excursion on horseback or in a vehicle.
- 11.A saddle horse. [Prov. Eng.] Wright.
- 12.A road or avenue cut in a wood, or through grounds, to be used as a place for riding; a riding.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00