What does "ride" mean?
An instance of riding.
Ride
/ɹaɪd/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: An instance of riding.
- Grammar: ride is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: drive, abut, abut on, aggravate.
- Useful contrasts: footed, alight, avoid trial.
- Usage evidence: If wishes were horses, beggars might ride.
How to use "ride"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "ride" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "ride" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "ride" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "ride" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "ride" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "drive" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "ride", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An instance of riding.
"Can I have a ride on your bike?"
- 2 a journey in a vehicle (usually an automobile) wordnet
- 3 A vehicle. informal
"That's a nice ride; what did it cost?"
- 4 a mechanical device that you ride for amusement or excitement wordnet
- 5 An amusement ridden at a fair or amusement park.
"the kids went on all the rides"
Show 10 more definitions
- 6 A lift given to someone in another person's vehicle.
"Can you give me a ride home?"
- 7 A road or avenue cut in a wood, for riding; a bridleway or other wide country path. UK
""Could you see the ride that goes down and round the point of the woods...?" "I could see down it till it went round the corner."... "...Then 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...""
- 8 A saddle horse. UK, archaic, dialectal
"Stella, who in her day was a beautiful ride."
- 9 A person (or sometimes a thing or a place) that is visually attractive. Ireland
"Absolutely, and I agree about Madonna. An absolute ride *still*. :-) M."
- 10 A steady rhythmical style.
- 11 Ellipsis of ride cymbal. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
- 12 A wild, bewildering experience of some duration. figuratively
"That story was a ride from start to finish."
- 13 An act of sexual intercourse. slang, vulgar
"I gave my boyfriend a ride before breakfast."
- 14 A district inspected by an excise officer.
- 15 A fault caused by the overlapping of leads, etc. historical
Verb
- 1 To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc. ambitransitive
"I ride to work every day and park the bike outside the office."
- 2 harass with persistent criticism or carping wordnet
- 3 To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger. ambitransitive
"Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore."
- 4 copulate with wordnet
- 5 To transport (someone) in a vehicle. South-Africa, US, informal, transitive
"The cab rode him downtown."
Show 29 more definitions
- 6 keep partially engaged by slightly depressing a pedal with the foot wordnet
- 7 Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water. intransitive
"Why name I ev'ry Place where Youths abound? / 'Tis Loſs of Time; and a too fruitful Ground. / The Bajan Baths, where Ships at Anchor ride, / And wholeſome Streams from Sulphur Fountains glide: […]"
- 8 move like a floating object wordnet
- 9 To be carried or supported by something lightly and quickly; to travel in such a way, as though on horseback. intransitive, transitive
"The witch cackled and rode away on her broomstick."
- 10 ride over, along, or through wordnet
- 11 To traverse by riding. transitive
"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."
- 12 be carried or travel on or in a vehicle wordnet
- 13 To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding. transitive
"How many races have you ridden this year?"
- 14 sit and travel on the back of animal, usually while controlling its motions wordnet
- 15 To exploit or take advantage of (a situation). figuratively, transitive
"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?"
- 16 climb up on the body wordnet
- 17 To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle. intransitive
"A horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast."
- 18 sit on and control a vehicle wordnet
- 19 To mount (someone) to have sex with them. ambitransitive, slang
"She rode him hard, and he squeezed her breasts, and she came again."
- 20 continue undisturbed and without interference wordnet
- 21 To have sex with (someone). Ireland, ambitransitive, slang
- 22 lie moored or anchored wordnet
- 23 To nag or criticize; to annoy (someone). colloquial, transitive
"“One old boy started riding me about not having gone to Vietnam; I just spit my coffee at him, and he backed off."
- 24 be contingent on wordnet
- 25 Of clothing: to gradually move (up) and crease; to ruckle. intransitive
"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."
- 26 have certain properties when driven wordnet
- 27 To rely, depend (on). intransitive
"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."
- 28 be sustained or supported or borne wordnet
- 29 Of clothing: to rest (in a given way on a part of the body). intransitive
"She's wearing inky-blue jeans that ride low enough on her hips that her aquamarine thong peeks out teasingly at the back."
- 30 To play defense on the defensemen or midfielders, as an attackman.
- 31 To manage insolently at will; to domineer over.
"The nobility[…] could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, coblers[sic], brewers, and the like."
- 32 To overlap (each other); said of bones or fractured fragments.
- 33 To monitor (some component of an audiovisual signal) in order to keep it within acceptable bounds. transitive
"vocal riding"
- 34 In jazz, to play in a steady rhythmical style.
"The quintet in Propheticape muses out-of-measured-time until Holland leads it into swift, riding jazz."
Antonyms
Example
"If wishes were horses, beggars might ride."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "ride"?
Common synonyms include: drive, abut, abut on, aggravate, airing, amusement.
How do you use "ride" in a sentence?
If wishes were horses, beggars might ride.
How do you pronounce "ride"?
Pronounced /ɹaɪd/.
Etymology
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”).