rid
- 1To free oneself, another person, or a place from an annoyance or hindrance; followed by of.
The new mayor promised to rid the city of corruption.
After years of clutter, she finally rid the garage of old furniture.
Similardeliver
Note
The core of the modern verb, inherited from Middle English ridden, which meant clearing a place of debris, freeing or relieving someone, even finishing unfinished work. Its everyday home is the passive be rid of (glad to be rid of that nickname). The object is the person or place set free, not the nuisance itself. For the past tense and participle, both rid and ridded are available.
- 2To remove someone or something annoying, troublesome, or unwanted; followed by away, from, or out of.
The treaty aimed to rid foreign troops from the border region.
Volunteers rid the invasive vines out of the nature preserve last spring.
Similarremove, expel, eject, clear
Note
Here the nuisance itself becomes the object. In Middleton and Dekker's The Roaring Girle, a character means to rid shame from his house rather than rid the house of shame. The preposition traces the direction of removal: away, from, out of. Niels Hemmingsen's rid them out of the way (1569) shows the same turn. It is the mirror image of the everyday rid of.
- 3To free or release someone or something, or to rescue or save them; often followed by from, of, or out of.
Only a swift ransom could rid the captives from the bandits' camp.
The pardon rid the old soldier of every charge against him.
Similarfree, release, rescue, clear
Note
The rescuing sense, close to deliver. In Shakespeare, Juliet begs Friar Laurence to find some means to rid her from a second marriage. It has since narrowed to reflexive use: rid yourself from a trap sounds natural, while freeing another person this way sounds old. With from or out of it leans toward rescue; with of it shades into freeing from a nuisance.
- 4To put a place, such as a room or a table, in order; to clear or tidy; often followed by up.
Grandma always told us to rid up the front room before visitors arrived.
The four breakfasted by the thin light, and the ‘house-ridding’ was taken in hand.
1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’UrbervillesNote
A tidying verb that lingers, rarely, in regional American speech, usually as rid up. It has older literary credentials. Jonathan Swift's Directions to the House-maid tells the maid to rid up the parlor hearth each morning. Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) takes the morning house-ridding in hand. Outside those regions, tidy or clear up is the safer choice.
- 5To clear a place or way; especially, to clear land of trees, undergrowth, and similar growth.
Each spring the tenants would rid another strip of forest for pasture.
By 1750 the family had rid most of the hillside and put it under plow.
Note
A land-clearer's verb, now archaic. William Camden's Britain (1610) describes Roman roads repaired by stocking up and ridding the stretches that were rough and overgrown with bushes and briers. The pairing with stocking up shows the work meant: cutting back growth, not tidying. The same labor without an object belongs to its intransitive partner.
- 6To clear ground, or some other place, of whatever covers or obstructs it.
The new tenants would rid until dusk, burning brush as they went.
The crews rid along the riverbank for weeks before the road was finally cut.
Note
The object-less side of clearing land of growth, now archaic: crews simply rid, the way one might say they cleared all day. Nothing follows the verb directly. The place is either understood or added with a phrase such as along the riverbank.
- 7To remove obstacles or refuse from a place; to clean or clear out; sometimes followed by up; specifically, to clear or empty the stomach.
Come, lads, drink up your ale, and we'll just rid this corner, so as to have all clear for beginning at the wall as soon as 'tis light to-morrow.
1872, Thomas Hardy, “‘To that Last Nothing under Earth’”Note
An archaic cleaning verb with a workman's ring. Thomas Hardy, writing in 1872–73, has a speaker tell the lads to drink up their ale so they can just rid this corner and have all clear for the wall at first light. The stomach meaning overlaps with the intransitive stomach-clearing use, which says the same thing without naming the stomach.
- 8To destroy or kill someone; sometimes followed by away.
This Gloſter ſhould be quickly rid the VVorld, / To rid vs from the feare vve haue of him.
1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt,”The furious Tybalt caſt an enuious thruſt [of the rapier], / That rid the life of ſtout Mercutio.
c. 1591, [William Shakespeare], Romeo and Juliet. (First Quarto)Note
An archaic and deadly sense, at home in Shakespeare's verse. In The Second Part of Henry the Sixt (1591), Gloster "should be quickly rid the world." The victim is cleared out of the world, or the life itself is the object, as when Tybalt's thrust "rid the life of stout Mercutio." In current English, treat it as archaic. The living use is the "free of a nuisance" meaning.
- 9To eradicate something completely; to root out or uproot; followed by up.
Last winter the hedgers rid up the old thorn bushes along the lane.
It took two seasons to rid up the bracken from the upper pasture.
Note
A Cheshire dialect use, now archaic, that always takes up: hedgers rid up thorn and bracken by the roots. Be careful with the phrase, because rid up elsewhere means something gentler, tidying a room. Only context separates the uprooting from the tidying.
- 10To complete or get through a task or piece of work; sometimes followed by away or off.
A practiced crew could rid the whole harvest in two weeks.
[T]he Printer, in one day ſhall rid / More Books, then yerſt a thouſand VVrighters did.
1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke,. Noah..] The Columnes. The IIII. Part of the II. Day of the II.…Note
A Shropshire workman's verb, now archaic, that usually carries a note of speed. John Palsgrave in 1530 praises a quick workman who can rydde more worke in an houre than some can do in twayne. Joseph Moxon's Mechanick Exercises (1680) has the wheel that ridds Work faster off than the pole. The intransitive work-rids use makes the task itself the subject.
- 11To vomit, or to clear one's throat.
The patient rid violently after taking the physician's draft.
The old preacher would rid loudly before beginning his sermon.
Note
A West Midlands use, now archaic, that covers both being sick and clearing the throat, with no object needed. It pairs with the transitive clearing-out verb, which names the stomach outright. In older writing, only context tells whether someone was emptying the stomach or merely hawking before speaking.
- 12To deprive or strip someone, or oneself, of something.
Robbers on the highway rid travelers of their purses and rings.
One bad harvest could rid a farmer of everything he had saved.
Note
The same of construction as the modern nuisance-removing verb, turned the other way: what is taken is something the person would keep. A plotter resolves to slay the prince and ridde him of his lyfe. Modern rid of implies relief, so this obsolete sense reads oddly today; deprive or strip says it without confusion.
- 13To settle or bring to an end a disagreement or dispute.
The two families asked the parson to rid their quarrel over the boundary stone.
They [constables] ought to Rid Frays, and ſeek the Neighbours to aſſiſt for ſeparating the parties; and ſuch as hurt them may be puniſhed by the Juſtices.
1707, William Forbes, “An Abstract of the Duty and Powers of Justices of Peace, our of Our Own Acts of Parliament, and the Late Commission…Note
A peacekeeping verb, now obsolete. William Forbes's An Abstract of the Duty and Powers of Justices of Peace (1707) says constables ought to Rid Frays, calling on neighbors to help separate the parties. That means breaking up a fight on the spot, not arbitrating it afterward. The underlying image is clearing: a quarrel is something to be got out of the way.
- 14To dismiss an attendant who has been waiting on someone; used reflexively, to withdraw from someone's presence after waiting on them.
The duke rid his attendants before speaking a word of the rebellion.
Having dressed the king, the chamberlains would rid themselves from the royal bedchamber.
Note
An obsolete verb of dismissal, at home in courts of law and great households. Nicholas Udall's Erasmus (1564) describes a judge who riddeth a person answering before him at the bar, sending away someone whose business is done. John Palsgrave (1530) has the reflexive turn: we be able ynough to rydde vs of this mater without thee. Reflexively, it meant taking one's leave after service.
- 15To get out of or away from a place; to escape from it.
The prisoners hoped to rid the castle before the guard changed at midnight.
But if I my Cage can rid, / I'le flye vvhere I neuer did.
1615, George Wither, “The Fourth Eglogue”Note
Here the place escaped is the direct object, with no preposition. George Wither's The Shepherds Hunting (1615) has the lines: But if I my Cage can rid, / I'le flye where I neuer did. Obsolete and rare, it is easily misread as clearing the cage, but the meaning is getting out of it, much as quit takes a place.
- 16Of work, to reach completion; to get done.
The plowing will rid before sundown if the weather holds.
Once the neighbors came to help, the threshing rid in half the usual time.
Note
Work itself is the subject in this obsolete Northern England use. Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks (1626) pictures the laborer sweating at eight o'clock, when with quicke hands, worke rids apace. It is the intransitive mirror of getting through a job, and like that use it leans on speed; apace is its natural companion.
- 17Chiefly of a place, cleared of clutter or obstructions; tidied up.
By evening the threshing floor stood rid and swept for the next day's work.
We will make room for you! We will make a rid road from here to Winchester!
1866, C[harles] Kingsley, “How They Held a Great Meeting in the Hall of Ely”Note
An adjective made from the clearing verb, archaic or obsolete, with rid-up as its fuller form. Charles Kingsley's Hereward (1866) has the cry: We will make a rid road from here to Winchester! That is a road cleared for passage. It can sit before its noun, and quit is a near synonym in the sense of freed or clear.
- 18Used as the second element of a compound to mean full of, or dominated, oppressed or plagued by.
So Cupids faire mother be thy midvvife: out and alas I am mare rid, vvhat Somners Ghoſt or limme of Lucifer, puts poore Bordello in minde of pennance before he hath treſpaſſed?
1610, Iohn [i.e., John] Mason, The Turke. A Worthie Tragedie.Note
A different word altogether, despite the spelling: this rid is an old past participle of ride, so it means ridden, not cleared. In compounds it matches modern -ridden. John Mason's The Turke (1610) has a character cry out that he is mare rid, ridden by the nightmare. The same origin lies behind the well-rid horse and the old past tense of ride.
- 19Past tense and past participle of ride. Obsolete and dialectal; the standard forms are rode and ridden.
Note
An old strong-verb form, obsolete in the standard language and now nonstandard; modern English says rode and ridden. It collides with the clearing verb, whose own past is also rid (or ridded). As a result, they rid the road can mean they cleared it or they traversed it on horseback, and only context decides which.
- 20Of a horse, ridden and broken to the saddle; used only in the compound well-rid.
The dealer said the gray mare was well-rid and gentle.
[F]ull ten thouſand horſe / Freſh and vvell rid ſtrong Maſſiniſſa leades / As vvinges to Roman legions that march ſvvift / Led by that man of conqueſt, Scipio.
1605, Iohn [i.e., John] Marston, The Wonder of Women: Or The Tragedie of SophonisbaNote
A horseman's compound, now obsolete, and the most literal survivor of the ride participle: a well-rid horse is one that has been well ridden. It follows the noun or stands as a predicate rather than sitting before it. John Marston's The Wonder of Women (1605–06) has full ten thousand horse / Fresh and well rid. Modern English would say well-ridden.
- 21Progress made in a task; also, speed or pace.
The mowers made good rid through the lower meadow that morning.
At such rid, the harvest would be in the barn before Sunday.
Note
A farm-work noun from the verb of getting work done; it is rare, obsolete, and Northern English. Henry Best (1641), writing on haymaking in Yorkshire, advises forkers to pitch good forkfuls so the hay is laid sooner and the loader comes more ridde, making better headway. It is uncountable: one made good rid, never a rid.
- 22Loose earth, rubble, and other surface material at a quarry that must be cleared away before stone can be extracted.
The foreman set two laborers to carting away the rid before the cutters arrived.
Beneath three feet of rid lay a clean bed of limestone.
Note
A quarryman's word, archaic and Northern English, built on the clearing verb: rid is whatever has to be ridded before work can start. It also appears as rid-work, and modern quarrying calls the same layer overburden. It is uncountable and is usually measured by depth, as in three feet of rid.
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Practice
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Origins
The verb comes from Middle English "ridden" (to clear a place, to free or relieve someone), probably from Old English *ryddan (to clear), tracing back through Proto-Germanic *riudijaną to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to clear land." It was probably also influenced by Middle English words meaning "to rescue, deliver" and "to arrange, prepare." The adjective and noun come from the verb.
This adjective is derived from "rid," the obsolete past participle form of the verb "ride."