straddle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to sit or stand with one leg on each side of something

   She had to straddle the fallen trunk to cross the stream.

2. 2
   verb

   to extend across both sides of a boundary or combine two different areas or categories

   The new district will straddle the river and include neighborhoods on both banks.

3. 3
   noun

   a position in which the legs are spread to either side

   The gymnast landed in a controlled straddle on the mat.

Attested as a verb from the sixteenth century, probably as an alteration of dialectal striddle, 'stand or move with the legs apart.' The noun followed in the early seventeenth century.

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