adv. and prep., orig. phr. [f. A prep.1 + STRIDE.]
A. adv. In a striding position; with the legs stretched wide apart, or so that one leg is on each side of some object between, as when a person is on horseback. Astride of: bestriding.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. ii. 764. Does not the Whore of Bab’lon ride Upon her horned Beast astride?
1785. Cowper, Tirocin., 366. The playful jockey scow’rs the room … astride upon the parlour broom.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxx. I. 297. The way in which the impudent little beggar stands astride, and sticks his little feet out.
1860. Smiles, Self-Help, viii. 209. Sitting astride of a house-roof.
b. transf. and fig.
1709. Swift, T. Tub, ix. 110. When a man’s fancy gets astride on his reason.
1839–42. Alison, Hist. Europe (1850), XII. lxxix. § 57. 48. Napoleon’s central position astride on the Elbe.
B. prep. With one leg on each side of, bestriding.
1713. Guardian, No. 112 (1756), II. 118. It is my intention to sit astride the dragon upon Bow steeple.
1883. Roe, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 49/1. Astride his grandpa’s cane.
