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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bestride

Bestride \Be*stride"\, v. t. [imp. Bestrode, (Obs. or R.) Bestrid; p. p. Bestridden, Bestrid, Bestrode; p. pr. & vb. n. Bestriding.] [AS. bestr[=i]dan; pref. be- + str[=i]dan to stride.]

  1. To stand or sit with anything between the legs, or with the legs astride; to stand over

    That horse that thou so often hast bestrid.
    --Shak.

    Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Like a Colossus.
    --Shak.

  2. To step over; to stride over or across; as, to bestride a threshold.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
bestride

Old English bestridan "to bestride, mount," from be- + stridan "to stride" (see stride). Compare Middle Dutch bestryden.

Wiktionary
bestride

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To be astride something, to stand over or sit on with legs on either side, especially to sit on a horse. 2 (context figuratively English) To dominate.

WordNet
bestride
  1. v. get on the back of; "mount a horse" [syn: hop on, mount, mount up, get on, jump on, climb on] [ant: hop out]

  2. [also: bestrode, bestridden, bestrid]

Usage examples of "bestride".

Amazonian fair having overthrown and bestrid her enemy, was now cuffing him lustily with both her hands, without any regard to his request of a cessation of arms, or to those loud exclamations of murder which he roared forth.

Lean, swift and voluble, bestrid A starting-point, unfrocked to the bent knee.

Sure, such a horse for slipping from under one was never bestridden by man.

But the spirit of Romance and Christendom, the spirit which is in every lover, the spirit which has bestridden the earth with European adventure, is quite opposite.

She laughed with him, and they walked along the L bestridden avenue, exhilarated by their escape from murder and suicide in that cellar, toward the nearest cross town track, which they meant to take home to their hotel.

Her dull eyes widened at sight of the tall black horse bestridden by the finely-clad man in the macabre mask.

For good or ill, Spira was quite sure that the man would bestride their world in the years to come.

They were forced to bestride sharp peaks and leap over chasms so deep that they did not dare to look down them.

Rather than bestride his customary mule, he chose to mount a white horse, and had told his men that he would do so.

Shibli Bagarag to bestride him, and spurn him with his heel to speed, and bore him fleetly across the fair length of the golden meadows to where Noorna bin Noorka sat awaiting him.

In due time a pair of sober, business-like spectacles bestrides the nose.

Fearing to lose even that, I bestrode him and began to move urgently, but instead of rising further, his phallus grew limp and slipped out of me.

Honour, and Partridge bestriding the third horse, they set forwards on their journey, and within four hours arrived at the inn where the reader hath already spent so much time.

Paganel, DISTRAIT as usual, was flung several times before he succeeded in bestriding his good steed, but once in the saddle, his inseparable telescope on his shoulder-belt, he held on well enough, keeping his feet fast in the stirrups, and trusting entirely to the sagacity of his beast.

A common New-England rider with his toes turned out, his elbows jerking and the daylight showing under him at every step, bestriding a cantering beast of the plebeian breed, thick at every point where he should be thin, and thin at every point where he should be thick, is not one of those noble objects that bewitch the world.