What is "to ride down"

Ride \Ride\, v. t.

1. To sit on, so as to be carried; as, to ride a horse; to ride a bicycle.

   [They] rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air In whirlwind.
   --Milton.

2. To manage insolently at will; to domineer over.

   The nobility could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, cobblers, and brewers.
   --Swift.

3. To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding.

   Tue only men that safe can ride Mine errands on the Scottish side.
   --Sir W. Scott.

4. (Surg.) To overlap (each other); -- said of bones or fractured fragments. To ride a hobby, to have some favorite occupation or subject of talk. To ride and tie, to take turn with another in labor and rest; -- from the expedient adopted by two persons with one horse, one of whom rides the animal a certain distance, and then ties him for the use of the other, who is coming up on foot. --Fielding. To ride down.

   1. To ride over; to trample down in riding; to overthrow by riding against; as, to ride down an enemy.

   2. (Naut.) To bear down, as on a halyard when hoisting a sail.

      To ride out (Naut.), to keep safe afloat during (a storm) while riding at anchor or when hove to on the open sea; as, to ride out the gale.