/bestride/definition

bestride

-) Verb.

-) Pronunciation and accent: bɪstraɪd.

-) Third-person singular simple present: she/he bestrides.

-) Preterite tense: bestrode (or, rarely, bestrid).

-) Preterite participle: bestridden (or, rarely, bestrid, bestrode).

-) Present participle: bestriding.

-) Etymology: from Old English bestrīden, from be- + strīden (= to stride)

-) Transitively: 1. To sit upon (an animated being) with the legs astride; to sit astride of (something).

-) Synonyms: to stride, straddle, overstride.

-) Translation: ahorcajarse sobre (alguien, algo), in Spanish; s’asseoir à califourchon sur (une chose, quelqu’un), enfourcher (un cheval), in French; inforcare, in Italian.

[…] he bestrode a goodly steed, well conditioned and well caparisoned…

Washington Irving… Conquest of Granada

[…] Asinus himself galloped into view, at no great distance, urged to the unnatural gait by the impatient and brutal Weucha, who bestrode him.

Cooper… The Prairie

[Frederick] was never to be seen beyond the limits of his own domain, and, in this wide and social world, was utterly companionless - unless, indeed, that unnatural, impetuous, and fiery-colored horse, which he henceforward continually bestrode, had any mysterious right to the title of his friend.

Edgar Poe

Even now I seem to see the group of fishermen, with that old salt in the midst. One fellow sits on the counter, a second bestrides an oil- barrel, a third lolls at his length on a parcel of new cod-lines […]

Hawthorne… The Village Uncle

-) Metaphorically: (the subject: an unanimated being) to be upon (something) with its extensions as if astride.

[Michael] turned upon him a countenance somewhat flushed, […] and bestridden by the spectacles.

Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne… The Wrong Box

-) 2. To stand over (a place) with the legs astride; to stand astride of.

-) Synonyms: to stride, straddle, bestraddle.

-) 3. Rare acceptation: to stand over (an animated being) with the legs astride, in the manner of a vanquisher over a vanquished. 

-) 4. Rare acceptation: to stride (a street, etc.); this is, to walk with strides or long steps

A huge misshapen hobgoblin used to bestride the house every evening with an immense pair of jack-boots

Irving… Oliver Goldsmith

-) English words derived from BESTRIDE: bestrider, bestriding.

-) English words linked to the etymology of bestride: astride, stride (noun, verb), strider, striding, stridingly, outstride, overstride.