different between trail vs ride

English

Etymology

From Middle English trailen, from Old French trailler (“to tow; pick up the scent of a quarry”), from Vulgar Latin *tragul?re (“to drag”), from Latin tragula (“dragnet, javelin thrown by a strap”), probably related to Latin trahere (“to pull, drag along”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?l, IPA^(key): /t?e?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Verb

trail (third-person singular simple present trails, present participle trailing, simple past and past participle trailed)

1. (transitive) To follow behind (someone or something); to tail (someone or something).

2. (transitive) To drag (something) behind on the ground.
   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

     "I saw your brother—I saw your brother," he said, nodding his head, as Archer lagged past him, trailing his spade, and scowling at the old gentleman in spectacles.

3. (transitive) To leave (a trail of).

4. (transitive) To show a trailer of (a film, TV show etc.); to release or publish a preview of (a report etc.) in advance of the full publication.

5. (intransitive) To hang or drag loosely behind; to move with a slow sweeping motion.

   The bride's long dress trailed behind her as she walked down the aisle.
6. (intransitive) To run or climb like certain plants.
7. (intransitive) To drag oneself lazily or reluctantly along.

   Our parents marched to church and we trailed behind.

8. To be losing, to be behind in a competition.
9. (military) To carry (a firearm) with the breech near the ground and the upper part inclined forward, the piece being held by the right hand near the middle.
10. To create a trail in.
11. To travel by following or creating trails.
12. To transport (livestock) by herding it along a trail.
13. (dated) To take advantage of the ignorance of; to impose upon.
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

      I presently perceived she was (what is vernacularly termed) trailing Mrs. Dent; that is, playing on her ignorance.

Derived terms

• trailer
• trail off

Translations

Noun

trail (plural trails)

1. The track or indication marking the route followed by something that has passed, such as the footprints of animal on land or the contrail of an airplane in the sky.
2. A route for travel over land, especially a narrow, unpaved pathway for use by hikers, horseback riders, etc.
3. A trailer broadcast on television for a forthcoming film or programme.
4. (graph theory) A walk in which all the edges are distinct.

Synonyms

• (track of an animal): spoor, sign
• (route for travel over land): dirt track, footpath, path, track

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• path
• track

Anagrams

• TRALI, irtal, litra, trial

French

Noun

trail f (plural trails)

1. Dual-sport motorcycle
2. Trail running

English

Etymology

From Middle English riden, from Old English r?dan, from Proto-Germanic *r?dan?, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreyd?-.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /?a?d/
• Rhymes: -a?d

Verb

ride (third-person singular simple present rides, present participle riding, simple past rode or (obsolete) rade or (obsolete) rid, past participle ridden or (now colloquial and nonstandard) rode)

1. (intransitive, transitive) To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc. [from 8th c., transitive usage from 9th c.]
   • 1923, "Mrs. Rinehart", Time, 28 Apr 1923

     It is characteristic of her that she hates trains, that she arrives from a rail-road journey a nervous wreck; but that she can ride a horse steadily for weeks through the most dangerous western passes.

   • 2010, The Guardian, 6 Oct 2010

     The original winner Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia was relegated after riding too aggressively to storm from fourth to first on the final bend.

2. (intransitive, transitive) To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger. [from 9th c., transitive usage from 19th c.]
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

     Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore.

   • 1960, "Biznelcmd", Time, 20 Jun 1960

     In an elaborately built, indoor San Francisco, passengers ride cable cars through quiet, hilly streets.

3. (transitive, chiefly US and South Africa) To transport (someone) in a vehicle. [from 17th c.]

4. (intransitive) Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water. [from 10th c.]
   • 1717, John Dryden, Art of Love

     where ships at anchor ride.

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home […]

5. (transitive, intransitive) To be carried or supported by something lightly and quickly; to travel in such a way, as though on horseback. [from 10th c.]

6. (transitive) To traverse by riding.
   • 1999, David Levinson, Karen Christensen, Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present

     Early women tobogganists rode the course in the requisite attire of their day: skirts. In spite of this hindrance, some women riders turned in very respectable performances.

7. (transitive) To convey, as by riding; to make or do by riding.
8. (intransitive) To support a rider, as a horse; to move under the saddle.

9. (intransitive, transitive) To mount (someone) to have sex with them; to have sexual intercourse with. [from 13th c.]
   • 1997, Linda Howard, Son of the Morning, page 345

     She rode him hard, and he squeezed her breasts, and she came again.

10. (transitive, colloquial) To nag or criticize; to annoy (someone). [from 19th c.]
    • 2002, Myra MacPherson, Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the haunted generation, page 375

      “One old boy started riding me about not having gone to Vietnam; I just spit my coffee at him, and he backed off.

11. (intransitive) Of clothing: to gradually move (up) and crease; to ruckle. [from 19th c.]
    • 2008, Ann Kessel, The Guardian, 27 Jul 2008

      In athletics, triple jumper Ashia Hansen advises a thong for training because, while knickers ride up, ‘thongs have nowhere left to go’: but in Beijing Britain's best are likely, she says, to forgo knickers altogether, preferring to go commando for their country under their GB kit.

12. (intransitive) To rely, depend (on). [from 20th c.]
    • 2006, "Grappling with deficits", The Economist, 9 Mar 2006:

      With so much riding on the new payments system, it was thus a grave embarrassment to the government when the tariff for 2006-07 had to be withdrawn for amendments towards the end of February.

13. (intransitive) Of clothing: to rest (in a given way on a part of the body). [from 20th c.]
    • 2001, Jenny Eliscu, "Oops...she's doing it again", The Observer, 16 Sep 2001

      She's wearing inky-blue jeans that ride low enough on her hips that her aquamarine thong peeks out teasingly at the back.

14. (lacrosse) To play defense on the defensemen or midfielders, as an attackman.
15. To manage insolently at will; to domineer over.
    • 1731, Jonathan Swift, The Presbyterians Plea of Merit

      The nobility […] could no longer endure to be ridden by bakers, coblers[sic], brewers, and the like.

16. (surgery) To overlap (each other); said of bones or fractured fragments.
17. (radio, television, transitive) To monitor (some component of an audiovisual signal) in order to keep it within acceptable bounds.
    • 2006, Simran Kohli, Radio Jockey Handbook

      The board operator normally watches the meter scale marked for modulation percentage, riding the gain to bring volume peaks into the 85% to 100% range.

    • 2017, Michael O'Connell, Turn Up the Volume: A Down and Dirty Guide to Podcasting (page 22)

      “You don't want them riding the volume knob, so that's why you learn how to do your levels properly to make the whole thing transparent for the listener. […]

18. (music) In jazz, a steady rhythmical style.

Synonyms

• (to have sexual intercourse): do it, get it on; see also Thesaurus:copulate

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

ride (plural rides)

1. An instance of riding.

2. (informal) A vehicle.

3. An amusement ridden at a fair or amusement park.

4. A lift given to someone in another person's vehicle.

5. (Britain) A road or avenue cut in a wood, for riding; a bridleway or other wide country path.
6. (Britain, dialect, archaic) A saddle horse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

7. (Ireland) A person (or sometimes a thing or a place) that is visually attractive.
   • 2007 July 14, Michael O'Neill, Re: More mouthy ineffectual poseurs...[was Re: Live Earth - One Of The Most Important Events On This Particular Planet - don't let SCI distract you, in soc.culture.irish, Usenet:

     Absolutely, and I agree about Madonna. An absolute ride *still*. :-) M.

8. (music) In jazz, to play in a steady rhythmical style.
   • 2000, Max Harrison, Charles Fox, Eric Thacker, The Essential Jazz Records: Modernism to postmodernism (page 238)

     The quintet in Propheticape muses out-of-measured-time until Holland leads it into swift, riding jazz.

9. A wild, bewildering experience of some duration.

10. (informal) An act of sexual intercourse

    Synonyms: shag, fuck, cop, bang

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Dier, IDer, Reid, dier, dire, drie, ired

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ri?ð?/, [??iðð?]
• Rhymes: -i?d?

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Faroese ryta, rita or Icelandic rita, from Old Norse rytr, derived from the verb rjóta (“to cry”), from the verb Proto-Germanic *reutan?.

Noun

ride c (singular definite riden, plural indefinite rider)

1. black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla)

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Old Norse ríða, from Proto-Germanic *r?dan?, cognate with English ride, German reiten.

Verb

ride (past tense red, past participle redet, c reden, definite or plural redne)

1. to ride (to sit on the back of an animal)
2. (slang) to have intercourse with (sex position with one person sitting on top of another like on a horse)

Inflection

Derived terms

• ridetur
• ridning

French

Etymology

From rider.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?id/
• Rhymes: -id

Noun

ride f (plural rides)

1. wrinkle, line (on face etc.)
2. ripple
3. ridge

Related terms

• ridé
• rider

Verb

ride

1. first-person singular present indicative of rider
2. third-person singular present indicative of rider
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of rider
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of rider
5. second-person singular imperative of rider

Further reading

• “ride” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• dire

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ide

Verb

ride

1. third-person singular indicative present of ridere

Anagrams

• dire

Latin

Verb

r?d?

1. second-person singular present active imperative of r?de?

Middle English

Verb

ride

1. Alternative form of riden

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• ri

Etymology

From Old Norse ríða

Verb

ride (imperative rid, present tense rider, passive rides, simple past red or rei, past participle ridd, present participle ridende)

1. to ride (e.g. a horse)

Derived terms

• ridedyr
• ridepisk
• ridning

References

• “ride” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

ride (present tense rid, past tense reid, past participle ride or ridd or ridt, present participle ridande, imperative rid)

1. Alternative form of rida

Derived terms

• ridedyr
• ridepisk

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian r?da, from Proto-Germanic *r?dan?, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *reyd?-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?rid?/, /?ri?d?/

Verb

ride

1. (intransitive) to ride
2. (transitive, intransitive) to drive

Inflection

Further reading

• “ride (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011