ASTRIDE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does astride mean? 

• ASTRIDE (adverb)
  The adverb ASTRIDE has 2 senses:

1. with one leg on each side

2. with the legs stretched far apart

  Familiarity information: ASTRIDE used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASTRIDE (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

With one leg on each side

Synonyms:

astraddle; astride

Context example:

she sat astride the chair

Sense 2

Meaning:

With the legs stretched far apart

 Context examples 

They are too many, and willy-nilly they'll drag down the would-be equestrian before ever he gets astride.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"That bird is the trial of my life," she continued, removing the pink mountain from her head, while Laurie seated himself astride a chair.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was for this reason that he did not trust himself to the river astride one of the many drift-logs which lined its sand-spits.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

A little later he made the end of the gaff, where, astride the spar itself, he had a better chance for holding on.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The bruiser very calmly seated himself astride of a chair with his arms resting upon the back of it.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The handsomest among these maids of honour, a pleasant, frolicsome girl of sixteen, would sometimes set me astride upon one of her nipples, with many other tricks, wherein the reader will excuse me for not being over particular.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

One instant he was astride a broncho and flying through the fairy-colored Painted Desert country; the next instant he was gazing down through shimmering heat into the whited sepulchre of Death Valley, or pulling an oar on a freezing ocean where great ice islands towered and glistened in the sun.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)