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?’.

to have sexual intercourse without a condom.

1955		‘No. 35’ Argot in G. Simes DAUS (1993).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1997		A. Highcrest At Home on the Stroll 179: Regulars were often allowed to ‘ride bareback’.

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.

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.

to walk.

1845		G.W. Harris ‘The Knob Dance’ Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) XV July in Inge (1967) 52: Dick and Jule had to ride ‘Shanks’ mar.’.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 311: He’s gone home on shank’s mare.
1883		Taunton Courier 11 Apr. 3/4: I need only say you can journey back by rail or ride home on Shank’s pony.
1893		Exeter Flying Post 30 Dec. 7/5: A quarter of an hour’s ride on Shank’s pony lands us at the door.
1900		Reno (NV) Eve. Gazette 28 Apr. 2/2: To walk is to ‘take shank’s mare.’.
1900		Derby Dly Teleg. 26 Mar. 3/6: The Boers [...] have all got horses to ride upon, not like us having to ride Chanks’s pony only.
1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 363: ride Shank’s mare, v. To walk, go on one’s own shanks.
1909		Bucks Herald 14 Aug. 7/4: This secluded old-world little village [...] to which everybody who can ride shank’s pony pays a visit.
1927		C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 364: I will ride shank’s horse.
1931		J.W. Clark ‘Lumberjack Lingo’ in AS VII:1 53: ‘Ridin’ shanks ponies’ is an old phrase meaning to walk.

(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.

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].
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 Johnn’'s house calls. Looked scary. Applied pain when needed.

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).

(N.Z. prison) an invitation to a fellow-inmate to be sent a (marijuana) cigarette; it is placed on a sheet of paper and slid under the cell door.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 153/1: come for a ride n. to be the recipient of a cigarette or a marijuana joint sent to one after lockup, specifically by being slid under one’s cell door on a magazine page: ‘Do you want to come for a ride? Just wait by your door.

see ride the rods

(US Und.) to take the blame.

1954		(con. 1937) C. Chessman Cell 2455 88: I heard you rode the beef for a lot of other people when your partner squealed.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 296: ‘My friend was passing checks. I was helping him.’ ‘And he let you ride the beef?’ ‘I offered.’.
1977		B. Jackson Killing Time 195: They never take any action on the floorwalker or building tender. The inmate who got into it, he rides the beef. He’s automatically wrong.
1993		(con. 1975) K. Scott Monster (1994) 10: If anybody get caught for this, ride the beef, ’cause ain’t no snitchin’ here.

see ride bitch under bitch n.¹

to be in a bad temper.

1888		C.J. Dunphie Chameleon 182: We ourselves describe a man in the sulks as riding the black donkey [F&H].
1894		Brewer Dict. of Phrase and Fable I 372/1: Ride the black donkey To be pigheaded, obstinate like a donkey. Black is added, not so much to designate the colour, as to express what is bad.

(US tramp) to ride for free in the closed baggage compartment of a train.

1894		J. London Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 35: I took the overland out about 7:30 riding the blind. [Ibid.] 35: We went out ahead but the brakeman rode the blind out.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:iii 153: ride (the) blind, v. phr. To steal a ride on a blind baggage car or on a railway train. ‘I’ve spent all my money; I’ll have to ride the blind back.’.
1924		Clara Smith ‘Freight Train Blues’ 🎵 I asked the brakeman / Let me ride the blinds.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 67: Ever hopped a freight or ridden blind baggage, Mac?
1936		Robert Johnson ‘Walkin’ Blues’ 🎵 Well, leave this mornin’ if I have to, ride the blinds / I feel mistreated, and I don’t mind dyin’ / Leavin this mornin’, if I have to ride the blind.
1942		Z.N. Hurston Dust Tracks On a Road (1995) 692: Who care anything about no train fare? [...] I can ride de blind, can’t I?
1958		Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 380: I’m gonna leave heah dis mawnin’ ef I have to ride de blind.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 203: We scattered through the railroad yards, we left the bulls far behind, / a thousand caught freights for other states, and me, I rode the blinds.
1970		Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 257: Jack London rode the blinds for hundreds of miles, defeating train crews’ efforts to dislodge him.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 210: I thought [...] you’d be fanning your ass up front now and ride the blind until the train gets going too fast for him to catch it.
1997		D.H. Edwards The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing 154: [I] blinded a passenger [train] fsrom Chicago to St. Louis .

1. (US prison) to threaten or intimidate another inmate; to prophesy.

1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 212: ride the broom, v. – to point out the possibility that the undesirable may happen: to say, ‘You may not make parole,’ is riding the broom; to speak of it may cause it to happen.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 36: Riding the Broom Conveying threats or intimidation to other women prisoners. A woman is also riding the broom when she prophesies something may or will happen to someone.

2. (US drugs, also ride the broomstick, ...the witch’s broom) to participate in drug taking.

1954		M. Rubin ‘Gold Ring’ in Margulies Back Alley Jungle (1963) 94: Only it wasn’t like we talked them into anything—that wasn’t so! Everybody wanted to ride the broomstick.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1975		Hardy & Cull Drug Lang. and Lore.

see ride the rods

1. to ride in a passenger car rather than in a boxcar; thus cushion-rider n.

[1895		Anaconda Standard (MT) 20 May 3/2: They had a glorious trip, but enjoyed the homeward ride on the cushions of the car seats much more].
1902		Albuquerque Dly Citizen (NM) 7 Aug. 7/2: Mr Starr also gave them passports which entitled them to ride the cushions inside of varnished cars.
1911		Bismarck Dly Trib. (ND) 27 Jan. 5/6: The bill even demand that the members of the railroad commission [...] will have to dig up the cash if they wish to ‘ride the cushions’.
1913		L. Light Modern Hobo 10: You look as if you’re going to ‘ride the cushions’.
1924		‘Digit’ Confessions of a Twentieth Century Hobo 93: I went down to one of the stations intending to ride the cushions out of town.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 16: Slim and I rode the ‘cushins’ into Pittsburgh.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 34: ‘How much money you got?’ he demanded. ‘Not a nickel. If I had I’d be riding the cushions.’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 17: Riding the cushions on my way home made me think of another train ride I once took.
1952		L. Hughes Laughing to Keep from Crying 60: The latter, or cushion riders, were sometimes inclined to turn flat noses high at those who rode the rods.
1970		Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 25: [...] people rode the trains. With money they ‘rode the cushions’; without money they rode the freights.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 146: We’re gonna ride the cushions as soon as I can [...] borrow a hunk of bread.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 7: Those passenger trains are built for comfort, but you got to ride the cushions to get it.

2. in fig. use, to prosper, to be comfortable.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

(US) to eavesdrop.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 177/2: Ride the earie, or Erie. To eavesdrop.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Johnnie I’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 117: You guys should soft peddle a little — you don’t know who is riding the Erie.

(US campus) to be initiated into a secret society.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 54: ride, v. [...] In phrase ‘ride the goat,’ to be initiated into a fraternity.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.

(US) of an out-of-work cowboy, to travel around seeking work while subsisting on hand-outs.

1899		Las Vegas Dly Optic (NM) 29 July 2/2: Cattle thieves [...] riding the grub line [...] sneakingly placing brand(s) upon other people’s calves.
1909		W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 14: Right about now he’s ridin’ the grub line, unless he’s made a strike somewhere.
1912		Forest City Press (SD) 13 June 8/2: Jas. Hackett [...] was occupying himself chiefly at riding the grub line.
1941		A. Train Jr Story Everyday Things 303: Cowboys hired for the season saddle up and ‘ride the grub line’ from ranch to ranch, looking for another job [DA].

(US teen) to ride in the front passenger seat of a car.

1993–2002

Probert Encyc. 🌐 Ride the gun is American slang for to ride in the front passenger seat of a car.

(US) to masturbate.

2003

T. Seay ‘International Answers: Spammers’ Message’ on LBO Talk list 14 Jan. 🌐 In High School, I was probably as homophobic as your average straight teenager, but I never associated ‘riding the handcar’ with homosexuality. I never felt guilty about choking my chicken.

to be hanged.

1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 253: You’ll ride on a horse that was foal’d of an acorn. That is the gallows.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 622: May I ride on a horse that was foaled of an acorn, if this be not as honest a cod as ever the ground went upon.
1762		Smollett Sir Launcelot Greaves I 166: I believe as how ’t is no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I’ve been worse mounted, that I have – I’d like to have rid a horse that was foaled of an acorn.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Acorn To Ride a Horse foald by an Acorn i.e. the Gallows or Wooden Horse. You will be hanged.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Acorn. You will ride a horse foaled by an acorn, i.e. the gallows, called also the Wooden and Three-legged Mare. You will be hanged.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1828		Lytton Pelham III 295: The cove is a bob cull, and [...] as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 24: He’ll [i.e. Dick Turpin] ride a oss foaled by a hacorn yet, I varrants!
1846		Bradford Obs. 3 Sept. n.p.: Our thief was [...] sentenced to be hang’d [...] The hangman [...] strung him up, and turn’d him off, to take his acorn ride* [...] *‘To ride a horse foaled of an acorn’ is a fashionable periphrasis for being hanged.
1894		Burnley Express 8 Aug. 4/8: To ‘ride a horse foaled of an acorn’ was one delicate way of alluding to the unpleasant performance [i.e. hanging].

1. (US) to be executed in the electric chair.

1925		Black Mask Aug. III 61: You’ll ride for his murder.
1933		C. Himes ‘His Last Day’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 292: He [...] had returned in less than a year after his release to ride the lightning in the hot-squat.
1946		Charleston (WV) Daily Mail 2 Sept. 6/4: Psychologist James Hargan of Sing Sing prison has collected slang phrases from prisoners [...] ‘ride the lightning’ – electrocution.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 177/2: Ride old smoky. (Scattered; South) To die by electrocution in capital punishment.
1967		L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 273: All right Ruby, you’re gonna ride the lightning!
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 240: Then you go on to Death Row at state prison and just enjoy all that good food until it’s time to ride the lightning.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 290: The judge sentenced him to ride the lightning.

2. to be given a course of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT).

2012

D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 87: Dr Bankstreet decided to try ECT [...] riding the lightning, as we call it.

to travel by train without paying a fare.

1889		Sporting Times in DSUE (1984).
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 104: Travelling in the train on the odno – without paying the fare.

(US tramp) to ride on the cowcatcher of the locomotive.

1933

‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 45: We tried our first experience of ‘riding the pilot’. This means riding on the cowcatcher of the locomotive.

(US campus) to sit on the bench during an athletic or sporting event, esp. when one wants desperately to take part.

1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U.
2018		M. Mesko Confessions of a Caddie 28: I had to ride the pine both times, but I stuck it out until every other caddie either got a loop or left after the first light sprinkle.

1. to ride inside a passenger train.

[1899		Appeal (St Paul, MN) 4 Feb. 3/2: The ‘Jim Crow’ car law [...] the first provision [...] is that the Negro [...] will ride on plush and velvet].
1918		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 5 May 6/7: Harvest over, the tramps [...] are expected to ‘ride on the plush’ — that is, in passenger cars.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 461: Ride the plush, To ride inside a passenger car.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. in fig. use, to be well provided with material comforts.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

1. to vomit.

1997–2001		Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 ride the porcelain bus v 1. to vomit. (‘She’s in the bathroom riding the porcelain bus.’).
1999		G. Seal Lingo 135: As over-indulgence in alcoholic beverages may induce vomiting, the Lingo is well stocked with terms for this, including [...] ride the porcelain bus.
2002		Syney Morn. Herald 5 Jan. 174/3: ‘Sorry guys, I can’t wait for the bill, I need to ride the porcelain taxi to Tijuana’.

2. to have diarrhoea.

1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 114: Ben a bit crook in the guts [...] Been riding the porcelain pony all bloody day.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: ride the porcelain bus euph. An involved visit to the lavatory. For example, one which encompasses pebble dashing (qv).

(US) to accept the consequences of one’s crimes, such as arrest and imprisonment, and deal with them as well as possible.

2000

D. Jayatilaka ‘State of crisis, crisis of State’ in Weekend Express 22–23 Jul. 🌐 So there’s no choice now but to roll with the punches and ride the rap.

(US tramp) to ride on the steel bars beneath a freight car; fig. to be a tramp; thus rod-rider n.; rod-riding adj.

1894		J. London Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 33: I rode the bumpers the rest of the way. [Ibid.] 35: Two of us jumped the palace cars & decked them while the third went underneath on the rods.
1902		J. London ‘Rods and Gunnels’ in Bookman XV Aug. 541–44: To ‘ride the rods’ requires nerve, and skill, and daring.
1909		Salt Lake Herald Republican (UT) 11 Dec. 6/11: I have been riding the rods over the big Arizona desert.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 37: We recognised the rod-rider, though he failed to see us as he held his eyes tightly shut against dust and cinders which whirled about in the draught created by the train.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 176: I guess mostly he beat his way there ridin’ the rods.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 78: They ‘bummed’ their way. Some of them emulated professional tramps and ‘rode the beams,’ but most of them started out walking, trusting that kind-hearted motorists would pick them up.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 124: This would be a great boon to riding the bumpers if he could only persuade the railroads to accept it.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 25: He managed this by riding the rods and decking the coaches as far as Butte, Montana.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. 42: ride the beams – stealing a ride on a train beneath a car.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 256: Hoboes ride the rods, blinds and tops of trains.
1952		L. Hughes Laughing to Keep from Crying 60: The rod-riders got off nowhere near the station.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 95: This type cop could just as well be an old-time rod-riding thug.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 815: riding the rods – Riding on the braces beneath a car.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 5: He [...] taught me how to board a train while riding the rods.
1988		W. Burroughs Foreword in Black You Can’t Win (2000) 11: Where are the hobo jungles, the hop joints, the old rod-riding yeggs, where is Salt Chunk Mary?

(US Und.) to take responsibility for a crime.

1953

T. Runyon In For Life 230: The fact that I was recaptured [...] kept me from riding the rumble for that killing.

to practise highway robbery.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 1242/1: ca. 1810–50.

(US black) to enjoy a pleasant experience on a drug.

1983

R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].

(US) to wait, e.g. outside someone’s office, on a bench.

2006

Burns & Pelecanos ‘That’s Got His Own’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 12 [TV script] They got me out here riding the wood.

1. to be blunt, properly, you may ride to Romford on this knife.

1738

Swift Polite Conversation 74: lord sm.: (Carving a Partridge.) Well, one may ride to Rumford upon this Knife, it is so blunt.

2. to get a new pair of breeches or to get a new bottom put in an old pair.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: To ride to Rumford to have one’s backside new bottomed: i.e. to have a pair of new leather breeches. Rumford was formerly a famous place for leather breeches.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

1. to side with (in a fight).

1981

Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 266: A prisoner hooks up with a gang and he rides with or sides with someone during a fight.

2. (US prison) to perform sexual or other favours for someone in exchange for physical protection or commissary items.

1998

Austin American-Statesman (TX) 14 Oct. 9/4: Texas Prison Gangs Slang [...] Ride with: Do favors for another convict — sexual or otherwise — in exchange for protection or commissary items.

(Aus.) a general term of abuse; the implication is that the subject is ‘a goat’.

1919

W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 43: ride-on-your-back! — Term of abuse signifying goat.