bestride
Americanverb (used with object)
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to get or be astride of; have or place the legs on both sides of.
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to step over or across with long strides.
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to stand or tower over; dominate.
verb
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to have or put a leg on either side of
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to extend across; span
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to stride over or across
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bestridesimple
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bestridessimple
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have bestridperfect
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have bestriddenperfect
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have bestrodeperfect
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has bestridperfect
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has bestriddenperfect
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has bestrodeperfect
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am bestridingprogressive
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are bestridingprogressive
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is bestridingprogressive
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have been bestridingperfect progressive
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has been bestridingperfect progressive
Past
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bestridsimple
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bestrodesimple
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had bestridperfect
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had bestriddenperfect
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had bestrodeperfect
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was bestridingprogressive
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were bestridingprogressive
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had been bestridingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bestride
before 1000; Middle English bestriden, Old English bestrīdan. See be-, stride
Vocabulary lists containing bestride
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For much of his second term, Trump has seemed to bestride the globe, lavishing his attention on a wide range of international issues.
From Slate ● Mar. 10, 2026
‘Spartacus’ Kirk Douglas doth bestride the screen like Colossus as the titular gladiator turned rebel leader in Stanley Kubrick’s epic 1960 historical drama.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2022
It is a rare feat for a civil-rights luminary, even on the local level, to bestride generations, as the dearly missed U.S.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2020
Solar panels are being nailed to rooftops, colossal wind turbines bestride the plains and oceans, and a million electric vehicles are on U.S. roads — and it isn’t enough.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2018
"I care not where they carry me, so I take Silver Heels from yon brute that is bestride her!"
From The Minute Boys of York Town by Otis, James
New Zealand, noted for its gorgeous geography and modest population of 5 million, bestrides an important geostrategic location between the South Pacific and Antarctica.
From Washington Times ● Jan. 19, 2023
Amazon is a behemoth that bestrides several economic sectors.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2021
If Mr. Driver bestrides “Burn This” like a colossus — could he really be only 6-foot-2, as Wikipedia has it? — everyone else seems to shrink beneath his shadow when he’s onstage.
From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2019
The U.S. remains immensely powerful, but it no longer bestrides the world like a colossus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2015
Wearing embroidered palikari vest, puffy-sleeved poukamiso, and pleated foustanella skirt, my grandfather bestrides the gangway- He pauses a moment to look out at the audience, but the bright lights blind him.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
His legs bestrid the ocean; his rear'd arm crested the world; his voice was propertied ... as all the tuned spheres.
From Time Magazine Archive
Neuer bestrid a Horse saue one, that had A Rider like my selfe, who ne're wore Rowell, Nor Iron on his heele?
From Cymbeline by Shakespeare, William
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.
From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah
And I bestrid A Porcupine that never prickt.
From Discovery of Witches The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster by Potts, Thomas, fl. 1612-1618
These Warriours on a sort of Coursers rid, Ne’r log’d in Stables, or by Man bestrid.
From Anti-Achitophel (1682) Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden by Jones, Harold Whitmore
The U.S. bestrode the world like a colossus, and manufacturing was central to our dominance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
He bestrode the tabloid newspapers and craved headlines and front pages.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2024
He was sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, in what was a stunning fall from grace for a former president who once bestrode the world.
From Reuters ● May 17, 2023
Before he bestrode the continent and prefigured the ghastliness of modern European history — religious impulses sublimated in politics — Napoleon Bonaparte was an artillery captain.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 6, 2022
After the prayer, Mohammad again bestrode his she-camel, to perform the "Sa'y" which is the run between the two hills of Safa and Marwa.
From The Life of Mohammad The Prophet of Allah by Dinet, Etienne
James Ramsay MacDonald, onetime British Prime Minister, said last week: "I have never bestridden a bicycle because I have no balance of that sort."
From Time Magazine Archive
A wide and stiff ruff encircled her neck, a cap of the finest muslin, though rather dingy, covered her head; and her nose was bestridden by a pair of gold- bowed spectacles with enormous glasses.
From An Old Woman's Tale (From: "The Doliver Romance and Other Pieces: Tales and Sketches") by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
A horse, they said, was something that they personally had never bestridden.
From Life's Minor Collisions by Warner, Frances Lester
"The colossal figure which for fourteen centuries had bestridden the Indian continent vanished suddenly, like a rainbow at sunset."
From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by Alger, William Rounseville
In this race three horses outdistanced all the others; the great bay ridden by Colonel Washington, a snappy little gray bestridden by the colonel's boy bugler, and my own mount.
From The Master of Appleby A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part with the Great Struggle in the Two Carolinas; but Chiefly with the Adventures Therein of Two Gentlemen Who Loved One and the Same Lady by Lynde, Francis
If things were as United believes they should be, and England’s biggest club was bestriding the Premier League like a colossus, then the hiring of an executive would be little more than a footnote.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2024
Indeed, many historians and political experts say that as the 106th mayor of New York, from 1990-93, Dinkins suffered by comparison with the Gullivers bestriding him.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2020
When he was bestriding the nation, Gershwin was the most modern guy around; 82 years later — guess what? — he still is.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 6, 2019
THE only media mogul still bestriding his industry in old-fashioned style is used to being a predator rather than prey, a builder of empires, not a dismantler of them.
From Economist ● Nov. 23, 2017
Unlike the suffering, earthbound Christs depicted at eye level on the church walls, our Christ Pantocrator was clearly transcendent, all-powerful, heaven- bestriding.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
