astride, adv., prep., and a., orig. phr.
(əˈstraɪd)
[f. a prep.1 + stride.]
A. adv. a. In a striding position; with the legs stretched wide apart, or so that one leg is on each side of some object between, as when a person is on horseback. astride of: bestriding.
| 1664 Butler Hud. ii. ii. 764 Does not the Whore of Bab'lon ride Upon her horned Beast astride? 1785 Cowper Tirocin. 366 The playful jockey scow'rs the room..astride upon the parlour broom. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes xxx. I. 297 The way in which the impudent little beggar stands astride, and sticks his little feet out. 1860 Smiles Self-Help viii. 209 Sitting astride of a house-roof. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1709 Swift T. Tub ix. 110 When a man's fancy gets astride on his reason. 1839–42 Alison Hist. Europe (1850) XII. lxxix. §57. 48 Napoleon's central position astride on the Elbe. |
B. prep. With one leg on each side of, bestriding.
| 1713 Guardian No. 112 (1756) II. 118 It is my intention to sit astride the dragon upon Bow steeple. 1883 Roe in Harper's Mag. Dec. 49/1 Astride his grandpa's cane. |
C. adj. Of a seat on horseback: belonging or proper to one riding astride.
| 1889 in Cent. Dict. 1907 Daily Chron. 25 Oct. 3/5 Makers of riding habits are going to make a special effort to show that the ‘astride’ seat can be made elegant. 1930 S. G. Goldschmidt Fellowship of Horse ix. 132 Some say that astride riding is safer. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Nov. 944/4 The Dianas of our modern horse-shows will be mildly surprised to learn..that the astride seat is impossible for women. |