adv. [ Pref. a- + stride. ] With one leg on each side, as a man when on horseback; with the legs stretched wide apart; astraddle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Placed astride upon the bars of the palisade. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

Glasses with horn bows sat astride on his nose. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. Bestrode (Obs. or R.) Bestrid p. p. Bestridden Bestrid, Bestrode; p. pr. & vb. n. Bestriding. ] [ AS. bestrīdan; pref. be- + strīdan to stride. ] 1. To stand or sit with anything between the legs, or with the legs astride; to stand over [ 1913 Webster ]

That horse that thou so often hast bestrid. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To step over; to stride over or across; as, to bestride a threshold. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. clostridia 1. spindle-shaped bacterial cell esp. one swollen at the center by an endospore.
Syn. -- clostridia. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. [ capitalized ] a genus of anaerobic, spore-forming motile bacteria of the family Bacillaceae, including several pathogenic species, such as the causative agents of gas gangrene (Clostridium perfringens), botulism (Clostridium botulinum), and tetanus (Clostridium tetani). [ PJC ]

v. t. To surpass in striding. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To stride over or beyond. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who rides over a post road to carry the mails. Bancroft. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Stride. ] A narrow passage between precipitous rocks or banks, which looks as if it might be crossed at a stride. [ Prov. Eng. ] Howitt. [ 1913 Webster ]

This striding place is called the Strid. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. Strode Obs. Strid ; p. p. Stridden Obs. Strid); p. pr. & vb. n. Striding. ] [ AS. strīdan to stride, to strive; akin to LG. striden, OFries. strīda to strive, D. strijden to strive, to contend, G. streiten, OHG. strītan; of uncertain origin. Cf. Straddle. ] 1. To walk with long steps, especially in a measured or pompous manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mars in the middle of the shining shield
Is graved, and strides along the liquid field. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To stand with the legs wide apart; to straddle. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To pass over at a step; to step over. “A debtor that not dares to stride a limit.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To straddle; to bestride. [ 1913 Webster ]

I mean to stride your steed. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of stridding; a long step; the space measured by a long step; as, a masculine stride. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

God never meant that man should scale the heavens
By strides of human wisdom. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. stridens, -entis, p. pr. of stridere to make a grating or creaking noise. ] Characterized by harshness; grating; shrill. “A strident voice.” Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., from stridere to make any harsh, grating, or creaking sound. ] A harsh, shrill, or creaking noise. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ See Stridulous. ] To make a shrill, creaking noise; specifically (Zool.), to make a shrill or musical sound, such as is made by the males of many insects. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of stridulating. Specifically: (Zool.) (a) The act of making shrill sounds or musical notes by rubbing together certain hard parts, as is done by the males of many insects, especially by Orthoptera, such as crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts. (b) The noise itself. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The crickets stridulate by rubbing together the strong nervures of the fore wings. Many grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing the hind legs across strong nervures on the fore wings. The green grasshoppers and katydids stridulate by means of special organs at the base of the fore wings. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ NL. ] That which stridulates. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Stridulous; able to stridulate; used in stridulating; adapted for stridulation. Darwin. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. stridulus. See Strident. ] Making a shrill, creaking sound. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Sarmatian boor driving his stridulous cart. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stridulous laryngitis (Med.), a form of croup, or laryngitis, in children, associated with dyspnoea, occurring usually at night, and marked by crowing or stridulous breathing. [ 1913 Webster ]