Obs. exc. dial. [Back-formation from STRIDDLING adv.]
1. intr. To stand with the legs wide apart; to straddle.
1530. Palsgr., 732/2. I stande a strydling with my legges abrode, je me esquarquille.
1570. Levins, Manip., 128/12. To striddil, varicari.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 19. Strydand and stridland like Robin red-brest.
c. 1640. Gramercie Good Scot, in Maidment, Scot. Ballads (1868), I. 340. Where are our proud Prelates that stridled so wide.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Striddle, to straddle.
2. To stride.
1785. Burns, 2nd Epist. J. Lapraik, ix. Sin’ I could striddle owre a rig.
1821. Scott, Pirate, iv. It’s nae pleugh of the flesh that the bonny lad-bairn … sall e’er striddle between the stilts o’—it’s the pleugh of the spirit.
3. Comb. striddle-legs adv., astride.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Striddle-legs, astride.
1900. ‘R. Guthrie,’ Kitty Fagan, 84. One man … sat ‘striddle-legs’ on the chimney, to the huge delight of the juveniles.
Hence Striddling ppl. a.
1638–9. Caveat for Scot., in Maidment, Scot. Pasquils (1868), 65. With Gallaway Tam: that squint-eyed stridling asse.
