Also 6–8 stradle. [Frequentative f. strād- ablaut-var. of strīd- STRIDE v.: see -LE. Cf. STRIDDLE, STRODDLE vbs.]
1. intr. To spread the legs wide apart in walking, standing or sitting; to stride about.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Varix, Varico,… vel Varicor..., to goe wide with the knees and legges: to straddle:… to goe stradlynge.
1567. Golding, Ovid’s Met., XIII. (1587), 172. See how their vdders ful do make them straddle.
1605. 1st Pt. Jeronimo, II. iii. 83. Thou hast made him straddle too much like a Frenchman: for shame, put his legs closer.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., x. 73. [Boreas] From Shetland straddling wide, his foote on Thuly sets.
1619. Middleton, Tri. Love & Antiq., C 2 b. She being the first that taught women to ride sideling on horsebacke, but who it was that taught ’em to ride stradling, there is no Records so immodest that can shew me.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2074/4. An able white Gelding,… has all his paces, Straddles very much with his hinder Legs.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Straddle, to stretch or extend the Legs wider than common.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 676. Some noble lord Shall … wrap himself in Hamlet’s inky cloak, And strut, and storm, and straddle, stamp, and stare, To show the world how Garrick did not act.
1906. Charlotte Mansfield, Girl & Gods, xi. ‘How do you do?’ she said, entering the tiny sitting-room where Colonel Vibrant straddled in front of the fire.
b. To stand or stride across, over (a wide space, etc.), from one stepping place to another at a distance; to sit astride on, across.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgr. Progr., I. (ed. 2), 93. Then Apollyon stradled [ed. 1 strodled] quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said,… prepare thy self to die.
1760. H. Walpole, Lett. to H. S. Conway, 19 Sept. Can’t he make … Johnson straddle cross a river and come back with six heads of hussars in his fob?
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxx. His foot slipping, as he straddled from one huge fragment of rock to another.
1826. Hood, Recipe for Civiliz., 45. Tartar grooms, that merely straddle Across a steak and warm their saddle.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., ii. (1856), 18. I felt as if I could straddle from the main hatch to the bulwarks.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 266. Down in the cellars merry bloated things … straddling on the butts While the wine ran.
1885. Manch. Exam., 7 Aug., 5/6. Ministers who passed in and out had to straddle or leap over his long legs.
1898. J. M. Cobban, Angel of Covenant, i. 16. He advanced at me with threatening; but I straddled across the slab-step of the door, and dared him with the ashen cudgel I carried.
c. Of the legs: To stand wide apart.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 38. [An idol] resembling a man … his legs stradling, very wide.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., I. 163. Their Pack-saddles are so broad that they are very uneasie to ones Legs, which must straddle very wide.
1889. ‘Q’ (Quiller-Couch), Splendid Spur, x. Under a trunk extraordinary broad and strong, straddled a pair of legs that a baby would have disown’d.
1897. J. Gordon, Village & Doctor, 3. On he went … with head well back and legs straddling wider apart at every step, floundering in the heavy snow.
d. transf. of a thing, esp. of a thing having legs; also, to divaricate, sprawl. Also with complement.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, V 2. He would … splinter our pens til they stradled again, as wide as a paire of Compasses.
1663. Shirley, Honoria & Mammon, Wks. 1833, VI. 48. Her teeth straddle.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 66. There is one [passage] in Genesis, as I well remember, that is like a pair of compasses stradling!
1680. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., xii. 204. The Chopping-Block … hath three Legs in it, that stand stradling out from the underside.
1875. Browning, Inn Album, 1. Lubber prose o’ersprawls, And straddling stops the path from left to right.
1909. Durham, Archæol. Trans., p. xxxi. A modern screw-pile bridge now straddles its ungainly length across the Tyne.
1916. C. N. & A. M. Williamson, Car of Destiny, xiv. [We] crossed the Pisuergo by a long-legged bridge straddling across the river bed.
e. spec. Of the spokes of a wheel: To stand with the ends staggered (Webster, 1911).
1875. [see STRADDLING ppl. a.].
2. To walk with the legs wide apart; dial. ‘to swagger, strut’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 10. Bless my heart—how you do straddle about!
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxvi. Major Bagstock … straddled along the shady side of the way.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xii. 121. You straddle on to the tradesman who stands behind a little mountain of eggs.
1895. Sir H. Maxwell, Duke of Britain, i. 9. Petilius tossed off his bumper … and straddled off to the parade ground.
† 3. slang. (See quot.) Obs.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Straddle,… also in Sports and Gaming to play who shall pay the Reckoning.
4. trans. To set (the legs) wide apart (in standing or walking). In quots. with out, † asunder.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Diduco, Diductum stare, to stande stradlyng the legges a sunder.
1831. Carlyle, Sartor Res., I. v. Man … stands … insecurely enough; has to straddle out his legs, lest the very wind supplant him.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, iv. Mr. Quilp … straddling his legs out very wide apart, stooped slowly down.
1893. Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 151. I watched them [giraffes] drinking, straddling out their forelegs by little jerks, until their feet were yards apart.
5. To sit, stand or walk with one leg on either side of; to stride over; to bestride.
1823. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit., 2nd Ser. I. 51. Arion, with a grotesque motion, is straddling a great trout.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), II. xlvi. 95. Charley [the horse] was caught and dressed and straddled.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, vii. 251. Straddling a chair, and tilting it up may be pardonable in a bachelor’s rooms.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, xii. (1864), 397. In climbing between the box and the wall, it [sc. a monkey] straddled the space.
1908. E. Œ. Somerville, Further Exper. Irish R. M., 26. I straddled the window-sash, and arrived in the room with a three-cornered tear in the shoulder of my coat.
b. transf. To stand or lie across or on both sides of (something).
1890. R. M. Johnston, in Century Mag., May, 130/1. ‘Let him take a seat with me in the buggy.’
‘That is best perhaps, as he would know better how to avoid the stumps and straddle the ruts.’
1907. J. A. R. Marriott, Life Ld. Falkland, 314. A cavalry skirmish … enabled the King to win the race to Newbury and so straddle the London road.
1911. [see straddle-mill, STRADDLE sb. 7].
c. Naut. (See quot.)
1916. Sir J. Jellicoe, Disp., 24 June, in Battle of Jutland, 54. Colossus … was hit,… and other ships were straddled with fair frequency. [Ed. note i.e. shots were falling on both sides of the ship, but not hitting her.]
6. U. S. colloq. ‘To occupy or take up an equivocal position in regard to; to appear to favor both sides of.’ Also intr. (Cent. Dict., 1891.)
1884. Nation (N.Y.), 3 July, 4/1. The platform … contains the well-known plank ‘straddling’ the tariff question.
1884. Boston (Mass.) Traveller, Aug. It should be remembered that he never straddled the negro question.
7. Poker. To double (a stake, bet). Also absol.
1882. Poker; how to play it, 49. C can straddle B’s ante by putting in the pool two chips. Ibid., 50. A good player very rarely straddles.
1885. B. L. Farjeon, Sacred Nugget, xvii. He put in [the pool] a bank-note, and said, ‘Five pound blind.’ Antonio … put in an I. O. U. for ten pounds, saying ‘I straddle you.’ Ibid. Mike Patchett went ten pounds blind; he [Antonio] straddled it with twenty.
1897. R. F. Foster, Compl. Hoyle, 179. (Poker) The player to the left of the age may straddle the blind by putting up double the amount put up by the age.
Hence Straddling vbl. sb.
1673. Bunyan, Diff. Judgm. Water-Baptism, 44. Your putting in that way of his receiving which is invisible to us, is but an unhandsome straddling over my Argument, which treateth only of a visible receiving.
1761. B. Victor, Theatres Lond. & Dublin, II. 74. By walking the Decks of the Ship from a Boy, he had contracted a Stradling in his Gait, of which no Art or Application could ever cure him.
