rid, to remove with violence, ‘I shall sone ryd his soule out of his body’, Ld. Berners, Huen, xlix. 165; to destroy, Tempest, i. 2. 365; to clear off work, dispatch, ‘Slaves did rid those Manufactures’, Bacon, Essay 29 (ed. Arber, 483); to rid way, to get over the ground, move ahead, ‘Willingness rids way’, 3 Hen. VI, v. 3. 21. ‘Rid’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for clearing land, grubbing up underwood, &c., see EDD. (s.v. Rid, vb.2 1). Of Scand. origin, cp. Icel. ryðja, to clear land, Dan. rydde. See Dict. (s.v. Rid, 2).
rid, to set free, deliver, save. Bible, Gen. xxxvii. 22; Ex. vi. 6; Ps. lxxi (Pr. Bk.); 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 234; to acquit, ‘A judge riddeth a persone’, Udall, Apoph., 236. OE. hreddan, to deliver, cp. Dan. redde, G. retten. See Dict. (s.v. Rid, 1).
rid, to advise; ‘I rid thee, away’ (i.e. I advise thee to depart), Greene, James IV, Induction (Bohan). A Scottish form, see NED. (s.v. Rede, vb.1). See [rede].
ridduck, a gold coin; ‘Run for a ridduck’ (i.e. to gain a reward), Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 134. See [ruddock] (2).
ride, to be drawn through the streets in a cart, subject to popular derision; a form of punishment. B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol).
rider, a gold coin, orig. Dutch, having a horseman on the obverse, worth about 27s. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, i. 2 (Livia). Du. een goude ryder, ‘a golden coin having on one side the stamp of a man on horseback’ (Sewel).
ridgel, a half-castrated animal, a male animal with imperfectly developed organs. In common prov. use. Only found as a literary word in Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii. 6 (Penurio), where it appears as a term of abuse, ‘Yonder old Rigell, the Captaine’.
ridstall-man, a man whose business is to clear out or clean cattle-stalls. Greene, James IV, first stage-direction.
rifely, abundantly. Hall, Sat. iv. 3. 74; frequently, Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 101. ‘Rife’ in the sense of ‘abundant’, also of ‘frequent’ is still in use in Scotland, and in many parts of England. Cp. Du. ‘rijf, rife, or abundant; rijfelick, rifely, or abundantly’ (Hexham).
riffle, to ‘rifle’, plunder. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 681. See Dict.