Dictionary

bide en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /bɛɪd/ (Northumbria)
• /baɪd/ (General-American, UK)

Etymology

From Middle English biden, from Old English bīdan (“to stay, continue, live, remain, delay; wait for, await, expect; endure, experience, find; attain, obtain; own”), from Proto-West Germanic *bīdan (“to wait”), from Proto-Germanic *bīdaną (“to wait”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéydʰeti, from *bʰeydʰ- (“to command, persuade, compel, trust”). Latinate cognates (via PIE) include faith and fidelity. Cognates Cognate with Scots bide (“to dwell, to live; to stay”), Alemannic German beite (“to wait”), Cimbrian paiten (“to wait”), Dutch beiden (“to wait”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål bie (“to stay, to wait”), Faroese and Icelandic bíða (“to wait”), Norwegian Nynorsk bide, bie (“to wait”), Swedish bida (“to await, to bide”), Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (beidan, “to wait”).

Meanings

1. (dialectal, transitive) To bear; to endure; to tolerate.
   • And doubting naught right courteous all, in your accustomed wont: And gentle ears, our author he is prest to bide the brunt c. 1570, anonymous author, Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes:
2. (archaic, transitive) To face with resistance; to encounter; to withstand.
   • Tech[elles]. I heare them come, ſhall wee encounter them? / Tam[burlaine]. Keep all your ſtandings, and not ſtir a foot, / Myſelfe will bide the danger of the brunt. c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:
3. (archaic, dialectal, intransitive) To dwell or reside in a location; to abide.
   • All knees to thee shall bow of them that bide / In heaven or earth, or under earth, in hell. 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
   • But Sir Thomas Kennedy bode little about his house in Maybole, chiefly because his lads and lasses loved most to remain at Culzean, where the cliffs are and the sea spreads wide, clattering pleasantly on the rocks, and with the birds blithely swirling and diving about it all the year round. 1896, S[amuel] R[utherford] Crockett, “The Adventure of the Garden”, in The Grey Man, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin […], →OCLC, page 101:
   • John Dodds, the herd who bode in the place, was standing at the door, and he looked to see who was on the road so late. 1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, page 254:
4. (archaic, dialectal, intransitive) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain.
   • It’s you, it’s you must go and I must bide. 1913, Fred E. Weatherly, Danny Boy:
   • "Bide here," he says, "and birl the wine till I return. This is a ploy of my own on which no man follows me." 1902 January, John Buchan, “The Outgoing of the Tide”, in The Watcher by the Threshold, and Other Tales, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1902, →OCLC, page 252:
   • And thither wending there that night they bode. 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 168:
5. (archaic, transitive) To wait for; to await.

Forms

Deriveds

overbide · abide · unbidable · bide one's time · bide tryst

Relateds

bid · fidelity · faith

Synonyms

live (to dwell or reside in a location) · await (to wait for) · stand by (to wait) · put up with (to bear)

Translations (12)

cs čekat ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · cs dlít (To dwell or reside) · ru ждать ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · sv bida ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · cs vyčkávat ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · ko 때를 기다리다 ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · cs prodlévat (To dwell or reside) · bg ча́кам ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · ru ожида́ть ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · bg изча́квам ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · bg оста́вам ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain) · fi vartoa ((intransitive) (archaic or dialectal) To wait; to be in expectation; to stay; to remain)