ride.
To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc.
Meaning & usage
To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc.
I ride to work every day and park the bike outside the office.
To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger.
To transport (someone) in a vehicle.
The cab rode him downtown.
Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water.
To be carried or supported by something lightly and quickly; to travel in such a way, as though on horseback.
The witch cackled and rode away on her broomstick.
To traverse by riding.
To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding.
How many races have you ridden this year?
To exploit or take advantage of (a situation).
To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle.
A horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast.
To mount (someone) to have sex with them.
To have sex with (someone).
To nag or criticize; to annoy (someone).
Of clothing: to gradually move (up) and crease; to ruckle.
To rely, depend (on).
Of clothing: to rest (in a given way on a part of the body).
To play defense on the defensemen or midfielders, as an attackman.
To manage insolently at will; to domineer over.
To overlap (each other); said of bones or fractured fragments.
To monitor (some component of an audiovisual signal) in order to keep it within acceptable bounds.
vocal riding
In jazz, to play in a steady rhythmical style.
Where this word comes from
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”).
An instance of riding.
Can I have a ride on your bike?
We took the horses for an early-morning ride in the woods.
A vehicle.
That's a nice ride; what did it cost?
pimp my ride
An amusement ridden at a fair or amusement park.
the kids went on all the rides
A lift given to someone in another person's vehicle.
Can you give me a ride home?
A road or avenue cut in a wood, for riding; a bridleway or other wide country path.
A saddle horse.
A person (or sometimes a thing or a place) that is visually attractive.
A steady rhythmical style.
Ellipsis of ride cymbal.
A wild, bewildering experience of some duration.
That story was a ride from start to finish.
An act of sexual intercourse.
I gave my boyfriend a ride before breakfast.
A district inspected by an excise officer.
A fault caused by the overlapping of leads, etc.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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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.