hitchhike
Americanverb (used without object)
-
hitchhikes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hitchhiked,
past participle, past
-
hitchhiking
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
hitchhikes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hitchhiked,
past participle, past
-
hitchhiking
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hitchhikesimple
-
hitchhikessimple
-
have hitchhikedperfect
-
has hitchhikedperfect
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am hitchhikingprogressive
-
are hitchhikingprogressive
-
is hitchhikingprogressive
-
have been hitchhikingperfect progressive
-
has been hitchhikingperfect progressive
Past
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hitchhikedsimple
-
had hitchhikedperfect
-
was hitchhikingprogressive
-
were hitchhikingprogressive
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had been hitchhikingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hitchhike
Explanation
To hitchhike is to get a free ride from a passing car. If you see someone standing alongside the highway raising a thumb, chances are that person is hitchhiking, not just expressing approval of your driving style. In the past, it wasn't unheard of for people to hitchhike across the country, but it's much less common today. If you hitchhike, you typically stand beside a road or highway with one thumb pointed up. The hope for a hitchhiker is that a car will stop and its driver will provide a free ride. While for many people, hitchhiking was once considered a reasonable way to travel, today it's illegal in some places and generally thought of as dangerous. The word hitchhike dates from the 1920s.
Vocabulary lists containing hitchhike
"Hitching a Ride"
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From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
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Miracle's Boys
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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:
While diving, he saw a shark with a remora—a fish which uses suction to hitchhike on larger species—attached to its body, and he had an idea.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 23, 2023
Horsehair worms are born in water and use aquatic insects like mayflies to hitchhike to dry land, where they sit tight until they are eaten by terrestrial insects such as crickets or mantises.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2023
The event's organisers arranged for buses to take people from the road to the nearby city of Reno - but some people say they had to pay for rides or hitchhike out of the area.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2023
Joe had a job delivering groceries and would hitchhike home when done.
From Seattle Times ● May 13, 2023
We would hike to the gap if it killed us, and then try to hitchhike into Hiawassee for dinner and a night in a motel.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
It clearly hitchhikes on small liquid particles sprayed out by an infected person.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 26, 2020
A determined woman hitchhikes with a widower and his 12-year-old daughter to reach her wedding on Christmas Eve.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2019
Aside from that, she is a lesbian cheerleader who hitchhikes to New York and joins the rest of the gang.
From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2018
RAQQA, Syria — Every three or four days, Fatima Mahmoud hitchhikes 37 miles across a hilly expanse of northeastern Syria to her home town of Raqqa.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2018
A wary nomad who hops trains, hitchhikes and travels light, he is an archetypal wanderer whose folk-blues twang evokes a quintessential Americana.
From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 2015
This generation, who as young adults hitchhiked across the country and backpacked through Europe, now is going on safaris and hiking in the Serengeti on guided tours that offer “easy” as well as “challenging” options.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Somehow they hitchhiked to find a rental car and drove cross-country to Warren Wilson College in western North Carolina, where I still live and teach environmental education.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
We hitchhiked into town on the truck that came to pick up the donations.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026
He said he "hitchhiked to get there, and had a tent, a dream, and three cans of Heinz sausages and beans".
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2025
Together, with rolled-up towels under their arms, they hitchhiked into town from the KOA Kampground and caught another ride for several miles on the eastbound highway into Alamito.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
But for Dreesen, this meant sleeping in a Nash Rambler, a broken-down car that was up on blocks, and hitchhiking up and down Sunset Boulevard hoping to get a five-minute set at the Comedy Store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
“Down South” chronicles a hitchhiking trip on which Mr. McCartney and George Harrison bonded over guitars and rock ’n’ roll.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Meanwhile, songs like “Down South” brim with nostalgia for days gone by — in this instance, memories of a hitchhiking jaunt with Harrison.
From Salon ● May 12, 2026
Four famous duos have travelled nearly 6,000 km, hitchhiking through mountain towns, foraging in dense jungles, and battling challenges they never imagined, as contestants in Celebrity Race Across the World.
From BBC ● Dec. 10, 2025
My father tells stories about hitchhiking in pickups across the countryside to Lake Malawi, where he bought bundles of dried fish, rice, and used clothing, to sell back in the Dowa market.
From "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba
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.
