Word.ws English Dictionary

ride the lightning

ride the lightning verb: to be executed by electric chair; to go to the chair.

Verb

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

  1. (slang) To be executed by electric chair; to go to the chair.

Forms of ride the lightning

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

Questions about ride the lightning

What does ride the lightning mean?
Ride the lightning means to be executed by electric chair; to go to the chair.
What part of speech is ride the lightning?
Ride the lightning is a verb.
What is the past tense of ride the lightning?
The past tense of ride the lightning is rode the lightning.

Words near ride the lightning in the dictionary

  1. ride the cotton horse
  2. ride the cotton pony
  3. ride the crest of the wave
  4. ride the fair
  5. ride the high horse
  6. ride the lightning
  7. ride the pine
  8. ride the pony
  9. ride the rail
  10. ride the rails
  11. ride the rods

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ride the lightning (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-ride the lightning.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ride the lightning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ride_the_lightning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.