Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb With a leg on each side.
  • adverb With the legs wide apart.
  • preposition On or over and with a leg on each side of.
  • preposition Situated on both sides of.
  • preposition Lying across or over; spanning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • With one leg on each side of some object; with the legs wide apart.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb With one leg on each side, as a man when on horseback; with the legs stretched wide apart; astraddle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb With one’s legs on either side.
  • preposition With one’s legs on either side of.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb with the legs stretched far apart
  • adverb with one leg on each side

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a- +‎ stride.

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Examples

  • He gave me quite a lecture on the dangers of the side-saddle, and said very earnestly that women ought to ride "astride" (at that time this was a thing _incompris_ in England).

    Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman Giberne Sieveking

  • The demon-king Rawana bares his fangs and pops his eyes astride his horrific mount Wilmana.

    Island Art, and All That Comes With It David Littlejohn 2011

  • Find me reading shadows rocking astride empty words and neverhours.

    Touch JP Reese 2012

  • There is a touch astride the belly that feeds unsated flesh.

    Touch JP Reese 2012

  • Someone let loose with a blood curdling rebel yell, and a woman tore off her shirt, and climbed astride her boyfriend's shoulders, waving her arms wildly over her head.

    The Dead Goat Society Michael Gillan Maxwell 2012

  • And it is delivered to your door by Don Quixote astride a unicorn.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Telos Returns to ‘New Class’ Analysis and the Critique of the ‘Wholly-Administered Society” 2010

  • His base sat astride the York River, including Yorktown on the south bank and Gloucester Point on the north.

    Between War and Peace Col. Matthew Moten 2011

  • By June of the next year, astride the horse of sovereignty, he had become the favorite to win the Ukrainian presidency.

    The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

  • Bring back the virtuous knight in his armor, astride a noble steed.

    MIND MELD: Taboo Topics in SF/F Literature 2009

  • Bianca Jagger famously wore his shoes for her entrance into Studio 54, sitting astride a white charger; the Princess of Wales was a fan; and the "Sex and the City" character Carrie Bradshaw had such a predilection for his heels that "Manolos" became a household name.

    Manolo Blahnik: Feet First Tina Gaudoin 2012

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