imp. & p. p. of Ride, v. i. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He rid to the end of the village, where he alighted. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Rid or Ridded; p. pr. & vb. n. Ridding. ] [ OE. ridden, redden, AS. hreddan to deliver, liberate; akin to D. & LG. redden, G. retten, Dan. redde, Sw. rädda, and perhaps to Skr. &unr_;rath to loosen. ] 1. To save; to rescue; to deliver; -- with out of. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Deliver the poor and needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Ps. lxxxii. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To free; to clear; to disencumber; -- followed by of. “Rid all the sea of pirates.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

In never ridded myself of an overmastering and brooding sense of some great calamity traveling toward me. De Quincey. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To drive away; to remove by effort or violence; to make away with; to destroy. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

I will red evil beasts out of the land. Lev. xxvi. 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

Death's men, you have rid this sweet young prince! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To get over; to dispose of; to dispatch; to finish. [ R. ] “Willingness rids way.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mirth will make us rid ground faster than if thieves were at our tails. J. Webster. [ 1913 Webster ]

To be rid of, to be free or delivered from. --
To get rid of, to get deliverance from; to free one's self from. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Suitable for riding; as, a ridable horse; a ridable road. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of ridding or freeing; deliverance; a cleaning up or out. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field. Lev. xxiii. 22. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state of being rid or free; freedom; escape. “Riddance from all adversity.” Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

p. p. of Ride. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, rids. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. “Lysander riddles very prettily.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To explain; to solve; to unriddle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Riddle me this, and guess him if you can. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Riddled p. pr. & vb. n. Riddling ] 1. To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ For riddels, s being misunderstood as the plural ending; OE. ridels, redels. AS. r&aemacr_;dels; akin to D. raadsel, G. räthsel; fr. AS. r&aemacr_;dan to counsel or advise, also, to guess. √116. Cf. Read. ] Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling. [ 1913 Webster ]

To wring from me, and tell to them, my secret,
That solved the riddle which I had proposed. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

'T was a strange riddle of a lady. Hudibras. [ 1913 Webster ]