stride

present singular third person strides · participle present striding · past strode · participle past stridden · participle past strode · participle past strid

1. intransitiveTo walk with long steps.

   Mars in the middle of the shining shield / Is grav'd, and strides along the liquid field.

   1697, Virgil, “The Ninth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: lope

2. To stand with the legs wide apart; to straddle.
3. To pass over at a step; to step over.

   a debtor that not dares to stride a limit

   1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]

   1 more example

   For SAC66 is better known as Batty Moss (or Ribblehead) Viaduct - the magnificent, Grade 2-listed, 24-arch structure that strides over the pockmarked ground between Ribblehead station and Blea Moor signal box.

   2020 May 20, Philip Haigh, “Ribblehead: at the heart of the S&C's survival and its revival”, in Rail, page 26

4. To straddle.

   I mean to stride your steed.

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ix]

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   The air and manner of the horseman bespoke him of superior order;[…]. The rich housings of the beast he strode, proclaimed its owner of illustrious race; […]

   1807, [Miss Guion], chapter II, in The Three Germans. Mysteries Exemplified in the Life of Holstein of Lutztein. A German Romance. […], volume I, London: […] J[ames] F[letcher] Hughes, […], →OCLC, page 26

   Synonyms: bestride

plural strides

1. countableA long step in walking.

   She set off with a purposeful stride.

   3 more examples

   Still, a dozen men with rifles, and cartridges to match, stayed behind when they filed through a white aldea lying silent amid the cane, and the Sin Verguenza swung into slightly quicker stride.

   1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC

   An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder strikes in the last two minutes from Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner. Before that, England had utterly dominated to take another purposeful stride towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have already established a five-point buffer at the top of Group Eight.

   2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in Telegraph

   Rail technology advanced step by step - albeit electrification was a good stride, rather than a short step.

   2024 January 10, Philip Haigh, “Four decades of Britain's railway evolution - step by step”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 65

2. countableThe distance covered by a long step.
3. countablecomputingThe number of memory locations between successive elements in an array, pixels in a bitmap, etc.

   This stride value is generally equal to the pixel width of the bitmap times the number of bytes per pixel, but for performance reasons it might be rounded […]

   2007, Andy Oram, Greg Wilson, Beautiful Code

4. uncountableentertainmentA jazz piano style of the 1920s and 1930s. The left hand characteristically plays a four-beat pulse with a single bass note, octave, seventh or tenth interval on the first and third beats, and a chord on the second and fourth beats.

1. A surname.