Word.ws English Dictionary

ride the brakes

ride the brakes verb: to apply the brakes excessively, such that their working life will be shortened; most especially, to keep one's foot or hand on the brake pedal or lever even when no braking is needed.

Verb

ride the brakes (third-person singular simple present rides the brakes, present participle riding the brakes, simple past rode the brakes, past participle ridden the brakes)

  1. To apply the brakes excessively, such that their working life will be shortened; most especially, to keep one's foot or hand on the brake pedal or lever even when no braking is needed.

Forms of ride the brakes

third-person singular presentrides the brakes
present participleriding the brakes
pastrode the brakes
past participleridden the brakes

Questions about ride the brakes

What does ride the brakes mean?
Ride the brakes means to apply the brakes excessively, such that their working life will be shortened; most especially, to keep one's foot or hand on the brake pedal or lever even when no braking is needed.
What part of speech is ride the brakes?
Ride the brakes is a verb.
What is the past tense of ride the brakes?
The past tense of ride the brakes is rode the brakes.

Words near ride the brakes in the dictionary

  1. ride St George
  2. ride St. George
  3. ride tall in the saddle
  4. ride the bench
  5. ride the boards
  6. ride the brakes
  7. ride the circuit
  8. ride the clock
  9. ride the clutch
  10. ride the coattails
  11. ride the cock carousel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ride the brakes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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