ridden

1. 1
   verb

   Past participle of ride.

   The horse had been ridden hard in the days before the race.

   He has ridden trains across nearly every country in Europe.

   Note

   The form that follows have and be: she has ridden, the horse was ridden hard. Its simple-past partner is the separate form rode. Because ride works with or without an object, the passive is open to its transitive uses, so a horse, a trail or a route can all be ridden. An unrelated ridden, built on rid, survives as the archaic 'freed' form.

2. 2
   adjectivein compounds

   Oppressed, dominated, or plagued by something, especially something harmful.

   The colony remained ridden with disease throughout the rainy season.

   Their anxiety-ridden negotiations dragged on for months without progress.

   Similarplagued, afflicted, oppressed

   Oppositefree

   Note

   Where the 'full of' sense tallies what crowds a place, this one names what weighs on a person or a society: guilt-ridden, debt-ridden, anxiety-ridden, crime-ridden. A quick test tells them apart. If plagued by fits, you are here, and if full of fits, you are there. Compounds like disease-ridden sit on the line, and the context decides.

3. 3
   adjectivein compounds

   Completely full of the thing named, usually something undesirable.

   The neglected orchard was ridden with rot and fallen fruit.

   Reviewers complained that the pothole-ridden roads damaged their cars.

   Similarfilled, full, riddled

   Oppositefree

   Note

   Despite appearances, this comes from ride, not rid: a thing ridden with fleas is one the fleas have mounted and overrun. In practice it lives as the second half of a compound, as in flea-ridden, bullet-ridden and pothole-ridden. When it stands alone it takes with, as in an orchard ridden with rot, and it almost always names something unwelcome.

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