Green’s Dictionary of Slang

of a woman, sexually alluring.

2012

(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 68: Do you actually know how phenomenally fucking rideable your daughter is?

(gay) to fellate an uncircumcised penis.

1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 4: blind piece, to ride a (v.): To fellate an uncircumcised man.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

see under St George n.

(US) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

2012

J. Duke ‘Bastards of Apathy’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] ‘I wouldn’t mind riding that train.’ ‘You’d fuck her?’.

see bareback adv. (1) .

of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 974/1: mid-C.17–18.

to marry another man’s ex-wife or widow, or to start keeping his former mistress.

1635		R. Brome Sparagus Garden IV iv: [He] Has never top’d her in the way we treat of, / Before he wed her: for my sonne shall not ride / In his old boots upon his wedding night.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 11: If you love riding in others old Boots, / For God’s sake make hast with your Journey. [Ibid.] IV 172: And he shall Ride in both our Boots, / That comes the next to Wooe her.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: To ride in anyone’s old boots; to marry or keep his cast-off mistress.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

(US prison) to befriend officers in the hope of gaining favours.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Riding Leg: Becoming friendly to staff to get a favor. ‘He sure is riding that Lt’s leg hard to get a bunk change.’.

as a euph. for sexual intercourse, i.e. to gallop.

c.1707

‘Hide-Park Frolick’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 77: For my part I will [...] find out a Russet-coat Wench and a Hay-cock, / And there I will ride Tan-tivee.

see fuck the arse off someone under fuck v.

(US prison) to perform anal intercourse.

1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 31/1: RIDE THE DECK. Commit sodomy.
1941		G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 177/2: Ride the deck. 1. (Central and Western prisons) To practice active pederasty.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 39: ride the deck (v.): To pedicate. (Slang.).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 anal intercourse: [...] Syn: ride the deck.

(US campus) to have sexual intercourse.

1989		P. Munro Sl. U.
1997		K. Kainulainen ‘University Euphemisms in Calif. Today’ 🌐 A great number of expressions are used instead of the expression ‘to have sex’, which has probably lost its power to shock, for example ‘to ride the hobby horse’, ‘to make someone scream’, ‘to do the wild thing’, ‘to boost’, ‘to boink’, ‘to ball’ or ‘to bump’ to name a few.

to have homosexual anal intercourse.

1999

G. Seal Lingo 115: Related usages are to ride the tan track; dirt-track rider; ride the chocolate canyon, and to drill for vegemite.

a paid / kept male lover.

1779

Nocturnal Revels I 15: She [i.e. a retired bawd] lives snug, and enjoys herself and her riding-master [...] 58: Riding-masters for Ladies, capable of giving the most sensible lessons at almost a minute’s warnig.

(US prison) to have a sexual relationship with.

2022

J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 15: Frenzy, the new man she was riding with.

(US prison) to attack in a group.

[1927		B. Cormack Racket Act III: delaney (Impatiently): What’ll they do? [...] What they always do—ride us down. mcquigg: No. This time, by God, I’ll use their machine myself to push Scarsi to trial].
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 90: Ride Down When a group of inmates or a gang attacks other inmates.

1. (US black) to attack verbally, to criticize heavily.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 251: ride (one) down to the ground See holler.

2. to get down to the facts.

1985

T.R. Houser Central Sl. 19: down to the ground with it To get to the point. To get to the essence of something. ‘If they start askin’ why I didn’t come, we’re goin’a get down to the ground with it.’.

(US Und.) to ensnare a victim into a confidence trick.

1940

D. Maurer Big Con 305: To ride in (a mark). To rope a mark and bring him to the store.

(US) to scold, to reprimand.

2005

K. Huff A Steady Rain I iii: She was fuckin’ hysterical. And choosing this opportune moment to ride my ass.

1. exhausted.

1954		Detroit Free Press (MI) 1 Aug. TV Sec. 7/6: ‘He looks like he had been rode hard and put away wet’ is one of [Tennessee] Ernie [Ford]’s standard desciptions of someone [...] looking dishevelled or heat up.
1971		Cincinnati Enquirer 7 June 18/2: A drama about rodeo life [...] which will be known as —‘J.W. — Rode hard and Hung Up Wet’.
1987		Palm Beach Post (FL) 4 Mar. 5C/3: He once said he ‘felt like a horse that had been rode hard and hung up wet’.
1996		P. Hussain Olympics Out of Cobb Spiked! 175: ‘I feel like I’ve been rode hard and hung up wet to dry’.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 275: Desmarteaux grinned like he’d just left Shooter’s wife rode hard and put away wet.

2. (US) of a woman, in a man’s opinion past one’s prime, no longer sexually attractive.

2020

S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 150: Maybe the time to upgrade was now. Jenny was beginning to look rode hard and hung up wet anyway.

to be menstruating.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 221: White horse, on the Be menstruating.
1968-70		DARE II 1109/2: Qu. AA27, [...] Expressions [...] for [...] menstruation Inf MI78, Riding a cotton horse; WV20, White horse.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 157: There are a variety of expressions [...] that refer to a women’s menstrual period – to be on the rag, red Mary, to ride the white horse.

(US) to menstruate.

1973		K. Elgin Twenty-eight Days 17: Some other [terms for menstruation] known are: ‘riding the cotton bicycle,’ ‘the hammock is swinging’ (from the shape of the sanitary pad), [...] and ‘she’s covering the waterfront’.
1976		Bloodrot 1-7 55: The menstruating women may be "riding the rag" or "have the rag on;" she may bear a "manhole cover;" she may also ride the cotton pony" or "the cotton bicycle." .
1988		Delaney, Lupton & Toth Curse 117: The menstruating woman may [...] ‘ride the cotton pony’ or ‘the cotton bicycle’.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 ride the cotton pony 1. to menstruate. (‘She’s riding the cotton pony this week.’).
1999		J. Randall ‘A Visit from Aunt Rose’ in Verbatim XXV:1 Winter 24: There are over one hundred codes for menstruation, from the gentle euphemism (that time of the month) to the vulgar (riding the cotton pony) to the downright peculiar (the woodchuck has arrived).

(US black/campus) to have a menstrual period.

1939		Justinian Americana Sexualis 34: ‘She’s got the rag on’, or ‘she’s wearing the rag’.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 181: Rag, ride the [...] Rag, wear the Be menstruating.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 157: My sisters dey smell like ol’ trout when they ridin’ the rag!
1988		Delaney, Lupton & Toth Curse 117: The menstruating woman may be ‘riding the rag’ or ‘have the rag on’.

(US) to be menstruating.

1999

J. Randall ‘A Visit from Aunt Rose’ in Verbatim XXV:1 Winter 25: Codes that refer to blood include [...] the Red Sea is in, having the painters in, the reds, wearing red shoes, are you a cowboy or an indian? a red-letter day, and riding the red horse.

to walk.

[1552		G. Walker Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play in Judges (1926) 48: He shall be forced to trip on his ten toes homeward, for lack of a hackney to ride on].
1606		N. Breton Good and Badde in Grosart (1879) 14: His travell is the walke of the woful, and his horse Bayard of ten toes.
1662		Fuller Worthies (1840) II 108: At last he undertook to travel into the East Indies by land, mounted on an horse with ten toes.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 98/2: To ride bayard of ten toes is to walk on foot.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1839		Hereford Times 15 June 4/3: To ride bayard of ten toes is to walk on foot.

see shanks’s pony n.

(US tramp) to walk.

1857		White Cloud Kansas Chief (KS) 18 June 2/3: Special Correspondence of the Chief: By the Shoe-Leather Express.
1907		Brattleboro Reformer (VT) 7 June 7/3: The party [...] decided to come to this town via the shoe leather express.
1916		Harrisburg Teleg. (PA) 21 June 10/5: The truck broke down, and the young folks were compelled to travel via ‘Shoe Leather Express’.
1921		Alexandria Gaz. (DC) 29 Oct. 1/5: Their destination is San Francisco and every step of the way [...] will be by way of the ‘Shoe Leather Express’.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 8/2: Go by shoe leather express – To walk.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 461: Ride the shoe leather express, To walk.
1930		Sun & Eric Co. Indep. (Hamburg, NY) 25 Sept. 9/4: The Shoe leather Express! [...] only walkers are members.
1932		Pittsburg Exp. (PA) 18 Oct. It isn’t reasonable to believe all of them will ride the shoe leather express: .
1941		Plain Speaker (Hazelton, PA) 21 Mar. 13/3: [advert] The Shoe Leather Express that takes boys and girls farther for less!
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1958		Billboard 15 Dec. 9/2: Epic is hot with [...] ‘Shoe Leather Express’ by Richard Downing.
1963		M. Zoschenko Nervous People 270: If he doesn’t have any money, let him take the shoe-leather express.
1979		Morn. Call (Allentown, PA) 26 Sept. 32/1: I could have been [...] getting to where I wanted to go on the Shoe Leather Express.
1999		K. Harvey Matter of Betrayal 27: Needless to say, I’ve decided to use shoe leather express from now on.
1999		Cincinnati Exp. (OH) 26 Oct. 1/2: Hopefuls ride the shoe-leather express [...] The way to your vote is the path to your door.
2003		(ref. to 1945) E. Dyreborg Young Ones 137: The Shoe Leather Express was the group of 8,000 guys from our camp that went on the march instead of being transported by boxcar.
2008		S. Buchanan House in the Middle of Nowhere 137: I pulled Harlan along suggesting we abandon our monster home on wheels and take what George calls the ‘Shoe-Leather Express’.

(US campus/drugs) to be under the influence of MDMA.

1992		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 8: ride the E Train – to be under the influence of Ecstacy: ‘Diva took two hits of X and is riding the E Train hard’.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 71: Ride the E Train, ‘feel the effects of the drug Ecstasy’.

(drugs) to take heroin; thus horseriding, on horseback, using heroin.

1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 395: How you gonna take care of the kid if you’re on horseback?
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 195: He had been riding the horse a long time.
1961		L. Block Diet of Treacle (2008) 114: Start riding the horse and I cut you off clean. I don’t sell to junkies.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 92: Okay, dad, you and your horse-riding momma find another place to nod.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 8: I’m gonna ride the horse, or the horse gonna ride me?

see under mainline n.

(drugs) to smoke opium.

1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

(US black) to be intoxicated with drugs.

1955		H. Braddy ‘Narcotic Argot Along the Mexican Border’ in AS XXX:2 88: RIDING THE WHITE HORSE, ger. phr. Drugged dreaming; many boxes of drugs have the figure of a white horse on the outside.
1968		J. Colebrook Cross of Lassitude 239: He can understand very little, most of it seeming to be about someone who was ‘caught in a snowstorm,’ and ‘riding the wave’.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 368: He’d hit the scag trail [...] He was on the white horse that was riding him to death.
1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 ride the white horse v 1. to use an illegal white powder stimulant (e.g. cocaine, crystal meth, crank, etc.) (‘Man, Jeremy’s losing a lot of weight. You think he’s riding the white horse?’).

(US) to work as a clerk or any otherwise deskbound occupation.

1961		US Army Aviation Digest 65/3: The flight surgeon knows that a fellow may be able to ride a desk while experiencing a bout of upset stomach and diarrhea.
1979		R.G. Steele With Pen or Sword 145: Still reluctant about accepting an appointment to ‘ride a desk rather than a horse,’ William in November wrote thus to this brother [etc.].
1980		V. Thorpe Instrument 63: This law still applies even though I now ride a desk and don't go out news hunting any more.
1996		Scouting Mar.-Apr. 46: Boys’ Life editors were expected to rove for stories as well as ride a desk.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 44: He came up riding a desk at the State Department of Motor Vehicles.
2010		G. Magnesen Straw Men 199: I liked Las Vegas and had no desire to ride a desk and become a bureaucrat.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Malone had to ride a desk until [the enquiry] was cleared.

(US campus) of a woman, to attempt to get to know a man of her own peer group with the intentions of ultimately having a relationship with that person because of his personality, not his material possessions.

c.2003

K. Marquis ‘Canadian/US Sl. Words and Phrases’ on Academy 🌐 ride a jock USA; Pittsburgh, PA; when a female attempts to get to know a male of her own peer group with the intentions of ultimately having a relationship with that person because of his personality, not his material possessions.

see walk (backwards) up Holborn Hill under Holborn Hill n.

see under bitch n.¹

see .

see play booty under booty n.¹

(US) to drive around when carrying narcotics or guns.

1996		UGK ‘Ridin’ Dirty’ 🎵 Ridin dirty, know what I'm sayin / Comin down on the slab, boy / Ridin dirty, for real tho, ridin dirty.
2013		Chamillionaire ‘Ridin’’ 🎵 They see me rollin’ / They hatin’ / Patrolling and tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Riding dirty - going out armed and/or in possession of drugs.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 246: I know what I’m selling. No problems. No riding dirty. No scales or any of that bullshit.

(UK black/gang) to pursue revenge.

2018-20

T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Ride for - retaliate, seek revenge.

to be bad-tempered or sulky.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

(US) to control or manage someone or something, to admonish, to beat.

1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 61: He s’poses all the time later, she’s inside ridin’ herd on her progeny.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 367: Buck was riding herd on all the Dutch ovens in camp.
1924		C.E. Mulford Hopalong Cassidy Returns 88: Quit ridin herd on him.
1931		O. Strange Law O’ The Lariat 109: Ridin’ herd on a girl ain’t my idea of a man’s job.
1942		Z.N. Hurston Dust Tracks On a Road (1995) 572: My mother rode herd on one woman with a horsewhip about Papa.
1952		E. Brown Trespass 139: Still the pain came to ride herd through her, to stampede her insides all to hell and gone.
1961		G.L. Coon Meanwhile, Back at the Front (1962) 206: I don’t know what it takes to ride herd on one bleeding staff sergeant, but I plan to find out right now.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 47: They would ride herd on us from a distance of a hundred yards.
1981		in A. Cornebise Amaroc News 123: The editor justified his riding herd on the men so closely.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 102: We don’t ride close herd on ol’ Harvey, you gonna have his wrecker in your rearview.

(UK Und.) for a condemned villain to sit on his coffin as the cart proceeds from Newgate prison to the Tyburn gallows.

1833

‘Jerry Abershaw’s Will’ in Fal-Lal Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 16: And vhen I ride in state, I vill make the svells to star, / If my pals will come and play a game at fives.

to hitchhike.

1955		S. Kunitz Twentieth Century Authors 694/2: He has crossed the continent several times by various means — to New York on a bicycle, by jalopy to California [...] by riding his thumb and the brake-rods all over the West.
1960		H.S. Thompson letter 28 Oct. in Proud Highway (1997) 239: Monday I’ll ride my thumb south.
1974		Billboard 20 July 16/5: Rodriguez has also developed into a prolific songwriter, with hits such as ‘Riding My Thumb to Mexico’.
1984		Wordplays 4 21: Tom: You ride your thumb, hunh? Alice: Yeah, sure. I get good rides.
2008		N. Murphy Those Were the Days 106: The only way for me to make the trip was to hitchhike, or ‘ride my thumb’ as the saying was.

(US) completely loyal, supportive.

2022

M. Haberman Confidence Man 509: [Acknowledgements] At the Times, Michael Schmidt was my ride-or-die and closest collaborator.

1. to be a highwayman.

1605

London Prodigal in DSUE (1984).

2. (US black/teen) to leave; also as imper.

1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 974/2: London teenager: late 1950s.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 ride out Definition: another way of saying ‘get out of town’.

3. (US prison) to move to another prison.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Ride Out: Transfer to a new prison. ‘They’re riding out tomorrow.’.

4. (US black) an excl. of dismissal, disbelief.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 ride out Definition: another way of saying [...] ‘I cant believe it’. Example: Fuck you nigga, ride out.

(UK black/gang) to pledge one’s support, irrespctive of the facts.

2018-20

T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Ride out for (someone) - to defend, even if guilty.

(UK Und.) to work on the prison treadmill.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

(US tramp) to pay for one’s seat (and thus travel in comfort).

1934		J. Archibald ‘Time Will Tell’ in Phantom Detective Sept. 🌐 When I leave this burg, I ride on plush an’ have my breakfast brought to my drawin’ room.
1962		J.D. Stern Memoirs of a Maverick Publisher 71: I never had the nerve to ride the rods. Hobos I met rubbed it in that I was not one of them. ‘Riding plush’ [...] put me in a lower social category.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 1: Must be somethin’ to ride the plush and use a tile can stead a hangin’ your ass out a boxcar door.

see under punk n.¹

see under pussy n.

to be ill-tempered or sullen.

1723		C. Walker Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 66: She, as the Saying is, rid very Rusty.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 74: They’re not to blame for being crusty, / ’Twould make a Highlander ride rusty.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		W. Scott Pirate II 288: Even Dick Fletcher rides rusty on me now and then.
1831		Navy at Home II 230: Come, old boy [...] don’t ride rusty, it’s all in good part.
1844		New Sprees of London 11: [B]e careful never to ride rusty.
1852		Era (London) 25 Apr. 5/1: Ther General sase thay ride preshos rusty iv anybody tries to get near im.
1867		Swindon Advertiser 11 Nov. 4/1: Your Carnarvons might ride rusty, or your Cranbornes cut up crusty.

1. (orig. US) to sit in the seat next to the driver in a car, also fig. use.

1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 793: This is your orderly room. I only ride shotgun on it.
1960		(con. 1950) R. Leckie March to Glory (1962) 108: Even the men who ‘rode shotgun’ in the cabins [...] were men who could not walk.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 85: Riding shotgun on the mail lorry down to the station to catch the express.
1973		Tharunka (Sydney) 8 Nov 28/3: [A]nother, younger fucker with a five o’clock shadow on his head, who is a little scared of riding shotgun for God or whoever the fuck he is.
1975		A. Bleasdale Scully 33: He used t’ride shotgun on the School Meals Wagon, but now he’s the driver.
1978		R. De Christoforo Grease 194: Out cruised Greased Lightnin’ with Kenick at the wheel and Mrs. Murdock riding shotgun.
1983		C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 87: If you don’t mind riding shotgun on a motorcycle, I’d be glad to give you a lift.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] ‘Now he’s got his nephew riding shotgun’.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 130: Jerry riding shotgun with Dewey driving.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 July 11: She was, she insisted, merely the facilitator. VN was the stagecoach with the bullion; she simply rode shotgun.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 208: The Walker hound rode shotgun gazing out of the passenger window.
2003		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 6: shottie – front seat, passenger side of a car.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] She [...] dived in and sprawled across the back seat [...] I rode shotgun.
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 54: As usual, he rode shotgun with his grandfather.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 138: Puffing himself up ready to make the young girl ride shotgun with the body.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 27: Freddy drove the Chevy Biscane which was old. Morrie rode shotgun.
2022		J. Sweeney ‘Bad Days in Bakhmut’ in JohnSweeneyRoars 7 Sept. 🌐 Vlad Demchenko riding shotgun, me in the back.

2. (US, also run shotgun) to act as a security guard, esp. on a vehicle.

1913		A.H. Lewis Faro Nell 105: If thar's money aboard, an' the express outfit wants it defended, they slams on some sport to ride shotgun that trip.
1937		E. Haycox ‘Stage to Lordsburg’ n.p.: The stage and its six horses waited in front of Weilner’s store [...] John Strang rode shotgun guard and an escort of ten cavalrymen waited behind the coach, half asleep in their saddles].
1959		(con. 1900-29) L. Katcher Big Bankroll 239: [T]he Diamond gang [...] rode in the trucks, guns ready [...] Just as in the old days of the West, when the stagecoaches traveled through hostile or dangerous territory, they ‘rode shotgun’ .
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 168: Big Ed and the other doorman riding shotgun.
1972		Knapp Commission Report Dec. 104: [of policemen working with narcotics dealers] They were either suppliers of drugs [or] they themselves were sellers of drugs; or they ran shotgun’.
1983		A-Team Storybook 60: I’ll ride shotgun for you.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 129: Frog Dickie was riding shotgun.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 99: Nuisance or not it’s good to have him riding shotgun tonight.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 78: I’m headed into Chicago to deliver some hardware to the South Side. Wanna ride shotgun?
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 98: Rhonda Willis, riding shotgun in the [...] four-banger Impala.
2014		M. Miner ‘The Hurt Business’ in ThugLit July [ebook] At first, I just rode shotgun on John’s house calls. Looked scary. Applied pain when needed.
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 120: [T]he ghostly image of Childers riding shotgun.

3. to act as a chaperone.

2003

T. Wolff Old School 112: Our regular dances were licentious enough, within the limits set by the vigilant, and of course envious, spinsters who rode shotgun at these affairs.

(US) to toady to.

2020

(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 54: The guy rides Big Time Tommy’s dick, but [...] Big Time Tommy thinks he’s nothing but a joke.

(S.Afr.) to cling to the outside, or stand on the roof, of a moving train, having boarded it while in motion.

1978		Staffrider 1:1 Editorial n.p.: A staffrider is, let’s face it, a skelm of sorts [...] He is part of the present phase of our common history, riding ’staff’ on the fast and dangerous trains [DSAE].
1982		Pace Apr. 72: There are those who will go one up, ‘ride staff’ then go on to climb on top of the moving train and do dangerous balancing acts on top of the coach as the train hurtles at speeds of up to 90km per hour [DSAE].
1989		Weekly Mail (S.Afr.) 13 Oct. 9: They thought I was playing staff, and wanted to arrest me, but later one of them understood [DSAE].
1996		J. Stringer Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Lit. in Eng. 640: Staffrider, a South African cultural magazine (taking its name from the young men who ride ‘staff’ on the crowded commuter trains from Johannesburg’s black townships).