bid.
To issue a command; to tell.
Meaning & usage
To issue a command; to tell.
He bade me come in.
To invite; to summon.
She was bidden to the wedding.
To utter a greeting or salutation.
To proclaim (a bede, prayer); to pray.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English bidden, from Old English biddan (“to ask, demand”), from Proto-West Germanic *biddjan, from Proto-Germanic *bidjaną (“to ask”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰedʰ-. Conflated with Old English bēodan (“to offer, announce”) (see Etymology 2 below). Compare West Frisian bidde, Low German bidden, Dutch bidden ("to pray"), German bitten, Danish bede, Norwegian Bokmål be.
To make an offer to pay or accept a certain price.
Have you ever bid in an auction?
To offer as a price; to tender.
She bid £2000 for the Persian carpet.
To make an attempt.
He was bidding for the chance to coach his team to victory once again.
To announce (one's goal), before starting play.
To take a particular route regularly.
I can’t believe he bid the Syracuse turn; that can be brutal in the winter!
Where this word comes from
From Middle English beden, from Old English bēodan (“to offer, announce”), from Proto-Germanic *beudaną (“to offer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“be awake, aware”). Conflated with Old English biddan (“to ask, demand”) (see Etymology 1 above). Compare Low German bieden, beden, Dutch bieden, German bieten, Danish byde, Norwegian Bokmål by. More at bede.
An offer at an auction, or to carry out a piece of work.
His bid was $35,000.
The company tendered a bid for a lucrative transport contract.
A (failed) attempt to receive or intercept a pass.
Nice bid!
An attempt, effort, or pursuit (of a goal).
Their efforts represented a sincere bid for success.
She put in her bid for the presidency.
A particular route that a driver regularly takes from their domicile.
I can’t stand this new bid I’m on, even if the mileage is better.
A prison sentence.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English beden, from Old English bēodan (“to offer, announce”), from Proto-Germanic *beudaną (“to offer”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“be awake, aware”). Conflated with Old English biddan (“to ask, demand”) (see Etymology 1 above). Compare Low German bieden, beden, Dutch bieden, German bieten, Danish byde, Norwegian Bokmål by. More at bede.
Try it on your idea.
bid has 3 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.