Rid, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Rid or Ridded; p. pr. & vb. n. Ridding.] [OE. ridden, redden, AS. hreddan to deliver, liberate; akin to D. & LG. redden, G. retten, Dan. redde, Sw. rädda, and perhaps to Skr. rath to loosen.]
1. To save; to rescue; to deliver; -- with out of. [Obs.]
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Deliver the poor and needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Ps. lxxxii. 4.
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2. To free; to clear; to disencumber; -- followed by of. “Rid all the sea of pirates.” Shak.
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In never ridded myself of an overmastering and brooding sense of some great calamity traveling toward me. De Quincey.
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3. To drive away; to remove by effort or violence; to make away with; to destroy. [Obs.]
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I will red evil beasts out of the land. Lev. xxvi. 6.
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Death's men, you have rid this sweet young prince! Shak.
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4. To get over; to dispose of; to dispatch; to finish. [R.] “Willingness rids way.” Shak.
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Mirth will make us rid ground faster than if thieves were at our tails. J. Webster.
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To be rid of, to be free or delivered from. -- To get rid of, to get deliverance from; to free one's self from.
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Ride (?), v. i. [imp. Rode (rōd) (Rid [rĭd], archaic); p. p. Ridden () (Rid, archaic); p. pr. & vb. n. Riding ().] [AS. rīdan; akin to LG. riden, D. rijden, G. reiten, OHG. rītan, Icel. rīða, Sw. rida, Dan. ride; cf. L. raeda a carriage, which is from a Celtic word. Cf. Road.]
1. To be carried on the back of an animal, as a horse.
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To-morrow, when ye riden by the way. Chaucer.
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Let your master ride on before, and do you gallop after him. Swift.
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2. To be borne in a carriage; as, “to ride in a coach, in a car, and the like”. See Synonym, below.
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The richest inhabitants exhibited their wealth, not by riding in gilden carriages, but by walking the streets with trains of servants. Macaulay.
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3. To be borne or in a fluid; to float; to lie.
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Men once walked where ships at anchor ride. Dryden.
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4. To be supported in motion; to rest.
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Strong as the exletree
On which heaven rides. Shak.
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On whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy! Shak.
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5. To manage a horse, as an equestrian.
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He rode, he fenced, he moved with graceful ease. Dryden.
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6. To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle; as, “a horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast”.
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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.
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Syn. -- Drive. -- 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.
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“Will you ride over or drive?” said Lord Willowby to his quest, after breakfast that morning. W. Black.
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