Library / English Dictionary

BIDE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dwell

Example:

stay a bit longer--the day is still young

Synonyms:

abide; bide; stay

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "bide" is one way to...):

continue; remain; stay; stay on (continue in a place, position, or situation)

Domain usage:

archaicism; archaism (the use of an archaic expression)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bide"):

visit (stay with as a guest)

outstay; overstay (stay too long)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

They just bide their time until environmental conditions return that are suitable for them.

(Changing salt marsh conditions send resident microbes into dormancy, NSF)

I was a fool to let her go on biding with us—a besotted fool—but I never said a word to Mary, for I knew it would grieve her.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"What has happened?" Mrs. Morse asked, having bided her time till Ruth had gone to bed.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I knew not what wild beast we were about to hunt down in the dark jungle of criminal London, but I was well assured, from the bearing of this master huntsman, that the adventure was a most grave one—while the sardonic smile which occasionally broke through his ascetic gloom boded little good for the object of our quest.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But oh, my dear lord, she cried with a trembling lip, let me bide with you for one furlong further—or one and a half perhaps.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No, ma'am—the horses were just coming out, but I could not bide any longer; I was afraid of being late.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

We'll be content to let her be; we'll be content to think of her, far off, as if she was underneath another sun and sky; we'll be content to trust her to her husband,—to her little children, p'raps,—and bide the time when all of us shall be alike in quality afore our God!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For two days and nights he neither ate nor drank, and during those two days and nights of torment, he accumulated a fund of wrath that boded ill for whoever first fell foul of him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“I fear that we can scarce bide upon this tack,” cried Hawtayne; “and yet the other will drive us on the rocks.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Mas'r Davy,” he said, cheerily grasping me by both hands, “if my time is come, 'tis come. If 'tan't, I'll bide it. Lord above bless you, and bless all! Mates, make me ready! I'm a-going off!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)