Also 4–5 stryde, 5 strede. [Two formations: (1) OE. stride str. masc. (corresp. to MLG. strede), f. strid- wk.-grade of the root of STRIDE v. The ME. spelling stride, stryde may sometimes represent this formation (with short i), which, with regular dialectal development of the vowel appears also in the 15th c. form strēde; the latter, however, might also possibly represent OE. (north.) strǽde, f. the same root. (2) The surviving word, f. the pres.-stem of the vb., is attested already a. 1300 in the Cursor Mundi (line 10592) by the rhyme with biside.]
1. An act of striding; a long step in walking. Phrase, at or in a stride.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 111. He steh to heuen-liche heh settle, and wiche strides he makede dunward, and eft uppard, þat seið sanctus salomon þe wise.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 480/1. Stryde, clunicatus.
1518. Whitinton, De Heteroclitis Nom., B iij. Passus, a stryde.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph., II. (Arb.), 146. Some wyll gyue two or iii. strydes forwarde, daunsing and hoppynge after his shafte, as long as it flyeth.
1548. Elyot’s Dict., Grallatorius gradus, a great or longe stride, suche as one taketh that goeth on styltes.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. iv. 68. Ile … turne two minsing steps Into a manly stride.
1609. Heywood, Brit. Troy, XII. xcii. 324. Accootred thus, strong Aiax with huge strides Stalkes in the field before the best of men.
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 676. The Monster moving onward came as fast, With horrid strides.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (ed. 3), I. 240. There was first the horrible Colbrand, running with his long Legs, well nigh two Yards at a Stride.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxiv. Mr. Pickwick had taken a few strides to and fro.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xiv. 99. We went downwards with long swinging strides.
1906. Charlotte Mansfield, Girl & Gods, xxiv. The sexless females … whose strides disgrace their petticoats.
b. transf. and fig.
1600. J. Chamberlain, Lett. (Camden), 97. Mrs. Pranell is like to make a wide stride from that she was, to be Countesse of Hartford.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., Ep. Ded. Simplicity flies away, and iniquity comes at long strides upon us.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitland Club), 189. I said I had never heard of one taking such a stride at once, as from the top of the kirk of Scotland to the top of the church of Rome.
1791. W. Hutton, Hist. Derby, 285. Having now got into the political world,… he made rapid strides towards preferment.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xi. Our narration is now about to make a large stride, and omit a space of nearly seventeen years.
1880. Kinglake, Crimea, VI. x. 384. The newly split stones … had scarce been yet worn down to smoothness when already the stride of a railway began to cover the ground.
1914. Blackw. Mag., Nov., 580/2. Stride by stride the village has closed in on the modest manor.
c. The distance covered by a stride; the normal length of a stride used as a measure of distance.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), P 134. Passus, faeðm uel tueʓen stridi.
13[?]. K. Alis., 4433 (Laud MS.). Ne miȝtten men a stride go Bot men stepped on ded men.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 1488. No ȝede he bot ten stride, His speche les he þar.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 4644. And nowar myȝte he passe be-syde, For þe roche was heȝ an hundred stryde.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, IV. x. 131. Syre Arthur … gaf hym … suche a buffet that he went thre strydes abak.
1472. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 256. And as for shotyng a ferre, he passid the ferthest on the felde .xxiiii. stredes.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 24. Betwixt them both was but a litle stride.
1663. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), I. 482. A part of the quadrangle, containing 30 of my strides in square.
1670. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 163. The first tent … was 15 strides long and 12 broad.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Stride, two Steps, or a Measure of five Foot.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, ch. xvi. I am to carry you to old Father Crackenthorp’s, and then you are within a spit and a stride of Scotland, as the saying is.
d. Extent of reach. nonce-use.
1703. Swift, Sid Hamlet’s Rod, 53. Sid’s Rod was of a larger stride, And made a circle thrice as wide.
† e. One of a flight of steps. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10592. Þis maiden … was … on þis grece … On þe neþermast stepp don, Bot sco þan clamb an oþeir son; þat quils þai locked [= looked] þam biside Sco was won to þe heist stride.
2. A striding gait; a manner of progression by long steps.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1067. I know him by his stride.
c. 1705. Pope, Imit. Dorset, Artemisia, 18. Her voice theatrically loud, And masculine her stride.
1813. Scott, Trierm., I. xvii. While she aped a martial stride.
1853. C. Brontë, Villette, x. I recognized his very tread: it was the same firm and equal stride I had followed under the dripping trees.
1893. J. Corbin, in Outing, XXII. 154/2. He [Green] was slightly crotch-bound, and had, in consequence, what is known as a ‘digging stride.’
† b. An energetic walking tour. ? nonce-use.
1767. S. Paterson, Another Trav., I. 112. He chose to take great strides upon the continents of Europe and Asia.
c. A distance traversed by a striding walk.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., xiii. 376, note. The usual mode of measuring out a new farm … was for the Veld-wagt-meester of the district to stride or pace the ground; and half an hour’s stride in each direction from the centre … was the regulated extent of the farms.
3. An act of progressive movement of a horse, or occasionally of other quadrupeds, completed when all the feet are returned to the same relative position which they occupied at the beginning; also, the distance covered by such a movement.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. i. 5. Be sure that he take a long stride with his feete, for … he which takes the largest strides goes at the most ease.
1846. J. Baxter’s Libr. Pract. Agric., I. 415. Then, too, comes the art of the rider, to keep the horse within his pace, and … add to the length of every stride.
1860. Baily’s Mag., I. 301. The former [horse] … winning in the last stride by a head.
1861. Sporting Rev., June, 414. Stride for stride he [the favourite] caught his horses; but still he did not go like a winner.
1875. W. Paterson, Notes Milit. Surv. (ed. 3), 8. Horse’s stride in walking = about 1 yard. Ditto … galloping … about 21/2 yards.
b. transf. with reference to foot-racing.
1879. H. C. Powell, Amateur Athletic Ann., 19. [In the 100 yds. scratch race] It was only in the last few strides that he [the winner] could show at all in front.
1901. Oxford Mag., 24 April, 291/1. Brown overhauled Richards in the last stride.
c. The regular or uniform movement (of a horse) in a race. Hence transf. of rowers, their ‘swing.’
1883. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 356. Horses have been pulled out of their stride.
1901. Daily News, 1 April, 5/6. The Dark Blues, however, almost immediately pulled themselves together, and got into their stride.
fig. 1909. Athenæum, 2 Jan., 9/3. The metre refuses to flow:… the reader loses his stride and has to return to the beginning of the line to get a fresh start.
d. To take in his stride: of a horse or his rider, to clear (an obstacle) without checking his gallop; fig. to deal with (a matter) incidentally, without interrupting one’s course of action, argument, etc.
1832. Q. Rev., XLVII. 239. Seven men, out of thirteen [fox-hunters], take it [the brook] in their stride.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., xxxv. (1901), I. 281. Cantering up, cracking his whip, as if he wanted to take it [sc. the fence] in stride. Ibid. He rose in his stirrups and pounded while Charley took the fence in his stride.
fig. 1902. Nature, 25 Dec., 171/1. Acting on this opinion, Ostwald has introduced physical theories, applicable to chemical facts, ‘in his stride,’ as it were.
1905. E. Wharton, House of Mirth, xv. I’d want something that would look more easy and natural, more as if I took it in my stride.
1908. Miss Broughton, Mamma, v. 44–5. Her niece’s talent for ‘getting things’ out of people, a talent that lay, not in any subtle process of ‘worming,’ but in a brutal directness of inquiry, that took rebuffs in its stride.
4. Divergence of the legs when stretched apart laterally; straddle; also, the distance between the feet when the legs are stretched apart laterally to the utmost.
1599. T. Storer, Life & Death Wolsey, F 2 b. If once we fall, we fall Colossus-like,… They that betweene our stride their sailes did strike [etc.].
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 455. My legs being put to the full stride, by a maine gad of iron aboue a yard long.
1681. Cotton, Wonders of Peak, 12. And yet above the Current’s not so wide To put a Maid to an indecent stride.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Stride, the greatest Distance between the Feet set wide.
1798. R. Dodd, Port Lond., 6. Through its arch will be seen sailing, gallant ships, like the ancient gallies through the stride of the great Colossus in the isle of Rhodes.
b. transf.
1791. W. Gilpin, Rew. Forest Scenery, I. 106. When two shoots [of an oak] spring from the same knot, they are commonly of unequal length; and one with large strides generally takes the lead.
1850. Beckett-Denison, Clock & Watch-m., 47. 20° between them [sc. the rollers of the pendulum] would give them a sufficiently wide stride for a firm bearing and add hardly anything to the pressure.
c. Tailoring. (See quot.) ? Obs.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, XX. No. 33 (1826), 257. A pair of pantaloons so constructed with regard to what taylors call the stride as to limit you to 3 or 4 inches per step.
5. The action of bestriding. rare–1.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Wit at sev. Weapons, II. i. Lady. So, what Saddle have I? Pris. Mounsieur Laroon’s…. Lady. That agen, You know so well it is not for my stride, How oft have I complain’d on’t?
† 6. ? A foot-bridge. Obs.
1791. Rep. Commiss. Thames-Isis Navig., 15. At the lower End of this Channel there is a Pen formed by a Swing Stride and Flood Gates.
7. Comb.: stride-high a., placed at such a height as to be reached by a stride; stride-leg(s adv. (Sc. and north.), astride, ‘straddle-legs’; stride-legged a., riding astride; adv. astride; strideways adv., astride.
1906. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 April, 2/1. Smooth steps projecting, *stride-high, from the breasts of the rough masonry.
1809. T. Donaldson, Poems, 150. He sat down *stridelegs on a stane.
1828. Ann. Reg., 378/1. Burke stood stride legs over her.
1894. Crockett, Raiders, xx. 180. Yet it was an amazing sight—Dee Bridge that night, with … men stride-leg on the parapet of it.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 310/2. A like Torture … is for an Offender to sit *stride-legged over a great Gun, and so to have it Fired.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Cevennes (1895), 30. A pair of mounted stride-legged women … dashed past me at a hammering trot.
1859. Meredith, R. Feverel, xxiii. I wish they’d let us ride our ponies *strideways.
