Meanings
present singular third person grides · participle present griding · participle past grided · past grided
- obsoletetransitiveTo pierce (something) with a weapon; to wound, to stab.
Where feeling one cloſe couched by her ſide / She lightly lept out of her filed bedd, / And to her weapon ran, in minde to gride / The loathed leachour.
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 408Synonyms: jab, run through, chef, chib, ching, chive, enthrill, foin
- intransitiveobsoleteTo travel through something.
So ſtoutly he withſtood their ſtrong aſſay, / Till that at laſt, when he aduantage ſpyde, / His poynant ſpeare he thruſt with puiſſant ſway / At proud Cymochles, whiles his ſhield was wyde, / That through his thigh the mortall ſteele did gryde[…]
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, pages 300-301 - To produce a grinding or scraping sound.
1 more example
Fiercely flies The blast of North and East, and ice Makes daggers at the sharpen’d eaves, And bristles all the brakes and thorns To yon hard crescent, as she hangs Above the wood which grides and clangs Its leafless ribs and iron horns Together, in the drifts that pass To darken on the rolling brine That breaks the coast.
1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H., canto 108
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo pierce (something) with a weapon; to wound, to stab.
Origin
- Middle Englishgirden
- Englishgride
From a metathetic variation of gird (“to strike, smite, upbraid, scold, jibe”), from Middle English girden, gerden (“to strike, thrust, smite”, literally “smite with a rod”), from gerd, yerd (“a rod, yard”). More at yard.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian стържа, скърцам
- стържа (stărža)To produce a grinding or scraping sound
- скърцам (skărcam)To produce a grinding or scraping sound
Russian скрежета́ть
- скрежета́ть (skrežetátʹ)To produce a grinding or scraping sound
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with gride
Anagrams
Cite this entry
gride. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gride
“gride.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gride. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gride,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gride.
Source: gride on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.