rid
/rɪd
/verb (rids, ridding; past and past participle rid or archaic ridded) [with object] (rid someone/thing of)
1Make someone or something free of (an unwanted person or thing): boil the peel to rid it of bitterness...
- And so the Dufourgs turned to Gina Rose, a 43-year-old Arizonan whose specialty is ridding buildings of unwanted energies.
- The beleaguered authority is to discuss the way forward in ridding the city of unwanted homes, which are magnets to vandals, at a meeting next Monday.
- But young people are fighting back in South Yorkshire and today will descend on London, seeking to rid their county of its unwanted image.
Synonyms
clear, free, make free, cleanse, purge, purify, empty, strip, scour, void, relieve, deliver
1.1 (be rid of) Be freed or relieved of: she couldn’t wait to be rid of us...
- Parents wanting to be rid of undesirables will be free to set up their own grammar schools with their own selection systems.
- So, as you can imagine, she felt quite relieved to be rid of all that for three months.
- Touchwood sees the illegitimate child he has fathered as ‘a half a yard of flesh’ and, relieved to be rid of it with just a small financial outlay, he remarks ‘and would I were rid of all the wares in the shop so’.
Phrases
be well rid of
get rid of
Origin
Middle English: from Old Norse rythja. The original sense 'to clear' described clearing land of trees and undergrowth; this gave rise to 'free from rubbish or encumbrances', later becoming generalized.