bide

verb

ˈbīd 

bode ˈbōd  or bided; bided; biding

transitive verb

1

past tense usually bided : to wait for

—used chiefly in the phrase bide one's time

is biding his time before asking for a raise

2

archaic : withstand

two men … might bide the winter storm

—W. C. Bryant

3

chiefly dialectal : to put up with : tolerate

… couldn't bide children on his place …

—J. W. Riley

intransitive verb

1

: to continue in a state or condition

bide still a moment

2

: to wait awhile : tarry

3

: to continue in a place : sojourn

bide in a cabin

bider noun

Synonyms

• abide
• continue
• endure
• hold on
• hold up
• keep up
• last
• perdure
• persist
• remain
• run on

Examples of bide in a Sentence

how long are you going to bide in this unhappy marriage?

at my advanced age I simply cannot bide young children

Recent Examples on the Web

Tom Thibodeau’s team is one biding time for its stars to return to form. —Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 27 Feb. 2024

The game itself, which was surely the initial plan before the phone call heard ’round the world, is just a ruse at this point, biding time until Heather is ready to lay it all out. —Tom Smyth, Vulture, 2 Jan. 2024

This means that even if there’s a large-scale migrant caravan making its way across the country, or growing clusters of people biding their time in the capital, foreigners barely register within the broader population overall. —Henry Gass, The Christian Science Monitor, 30 May 2024

Yet, say some Netanyahu supporters, the prime minister is less than receptive now to Biden administration appeals and is biding his time until U.S. elections in November. —Shoshanna Solomon, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English biden "to stay, linger, wait expectantly, hope for, undergo," going back to Old English bīdan, past bād, bidon, past participle biden, going back to Germanic *bīðan- (whence also Old Saxon bīdan "to wait, stand ready, hold out," Old High German bītan "to wait, expect," Old Norse bíða "to wait for, suffer, undergo," Gothic beidan "to wait for, endure"), perhaps going back to Indo-European *b^hei̯d- "entrust, trust" — more at faith entry 1

Note: The argument has been made, most notably by Émile Benveniste (Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, Paris, 1969, tome 1, pp. 119-20), that in Germanic an older sense "place one's trust in something" developed into "expect with confidence, wait for" and then "undergo, endure"—though this hypothesis has not been universally accepted.

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Kids Definition

bide

verb

ˈbīd 

bode ˈbōd  or bided; bided; biding

: to wait or wait for

bided his time before acting