Read.] Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous
proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling.
To wring from me, and tell to them, my secret,
That solved the riddle which I had proposed.
Milton.
'T was a strange riddle of a lady.
Hudibras. Riddle
(Rid"dle), v. t. To explain; to solve; to unriddle.
Riddle me this, and guess him if you can.
Dryden. Riddle
(Rid"dle), v. i. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. "Lysander riddels very prettily." Shak.
Riddler
(Rid"dler) n. One who riddles
Riddler
(Rid"dler), n. One who speaks in, or propounds, riddles.
Riddling
(Rid"dling) a. Speaking in a riddle or riddles; containing a riddle. "Riddling triplets." Tennyson.
— Rid"dling, adv.
Ride
(Ride) v. i. [imp. Rid [rid], archaic); p. p. Ridden (Rid, archaic); p. pr. & vb. n. Riding ] [AS.
ridan; akin to LG. riden, D. rijden, G. reiten, OHG. ritan, Icel. riða, Sw. rida, Dan. ride; cf. L. raeda
a carriage, which is from a Celtic word. Cf. Road.]
1. To be carried on the back of an animal, as a horse.
To-morrow, when ye riden by the way.
Chaucer.
Let your master ride on before, and do you gallop after him.
Swift. 2. To be borne in a carriage; as, to ride in a coach, in a car, and the like. See Synonym, below.
The richest inhabitants exhibited their wealth, not by riding in gilden carriages, but by walking the streets
with trains of servants.
Macaulay. 3. To be borne or in a fluid; to float; to lie.
Men once walked where ships at anchor ride.
Dryden. 4. To be supported in motion; to rest.
Strong as the exletree
On which heaven rides.
Shak.
On whose foolish honesty
My practices ride easy!
Shak. 5. To manage a horse, as an equestrian.
He rode, he fenced, he moved with graceful ease.
Dryden. 6. To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle; as, a horse rides easy or hard, slow or fast.
To ride easy (Naut.), to lie at anchor without violent pitching or straining at the cables. — To ride
hard (Naut.), to pitch violently. — To ride out. (a) To go upon a military expedition. [Obs.] Chaucer.
(b) To ride in the open air. [Colloq.] — To ride to hounds, to ride behind, and near to, the hounds in
hunting.
