Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BE-STRIDE', v.t. [pret. bestrid; pp. bestrid, bestridden. be and stride.]

1. To stride over; to stand or sit with any thing between the legs, or with the legs extended across; as, to bestride the world, like a colossus; to bestride a horse. – Shak.
2. To step over; as, to bestride a threshold. – Shak. Bestriding sometimes includes riding or defending, as Johnson remarks; but the particular purposes of the act, which depend on the circumstances of the case, can hardly be reduced to definition.