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

Up to this point, Rojas was biding his time, anxious and alert in his first varsity season. —Patrick Z. McGavin, Chicago Tribune, 11 Sep. 2023

Anthony Ruggiero, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program and the former deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs, said North Korea may just be biding its time. —Shannon K. Crawford, ABC News, 21 July 2023

Norby is far from the only prospect biding his time in the minors. —Jacob Calvin Meyer, Baltimore Sun, 15 Aug. 2023

But investors mostly bided their time for another session ahead of important inflation data. —WSJ, 12 July 2023

Similarly, Cranny bided her time through most of the women’s 10,000 meters, then struck on the last lap. —oregonlive, 6 July 2023

Liam is the sort of character who bides his time, waiting for his chance. —Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 3 July 2023

Xi did nothing except to ingratiate himself within the existing Party, bide his time, and move his way strategically through its bureaucracy with uncanny skill. —Stephen R. Platt, BostonGlobe.com, 8 June 2023

In his first scene, Tom buys Logan a watch for his birthday; a sign of the man biding his time. —Josh Wigler, The Hollywood Reporter, 29 May 2023

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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