Noah Webster
Bestride
BESTRI'DE, verb transitive preterit tense bestrid; participle passive bestrid, bestridden. [be and stride.]
1. To stride over; to stand or sit with any thing between the legs, or with the legs extended across; as, to bestride the world, like a colossus; to bestride a horse.
2. To step over; as, to bestride a threshold.
Bestriding sometimes includes riding, or defending, as Johnson remarks; but the particular purposes to the act, which depend on the circumstances of the case, can hardly be reduced to definition.