What does bided mean?
'Bided' is the simple past tense and past participle of the verb 'bide', meaning to wait patiently or to remain in a place over a period of time. In modern English it survives overwhelmingly through the idiom 'to bide one's time', which describes deliberately waiting for the right moment to act — often with a hint of strategy or restraint, suggesting that the waiter has a plan and is merely waiting for circumstances to favor it. For example, one might say 'She bided her time until the board was ready to hear her proposal.' Beyond this idiom, the word's older sense of dwelling or staying somewhere ('he bided at home') is now archaic or confined to regional speech. Derived from Old English 'bīdan', meaning to remain or endure, it shares its roots with 'abide'. Though rare on its own, 'bided' adds a literary, slightly formal flavor when writers want to convey patience charged with intent rather than mere passivity.
verb (past tense and past participle of 'bide')Past tense of the verb 'bide': to remain or stay in a place, especially for a long time; to wait patiently for an opportunity, often in the phrase 'bide one's time'.
- To wait patiently for an opportunity, especially in the phrase 'bide one's time' (past tense: 'she bided her time').
- To remain or stay in a place; to dwell (archaic or dialectal).
"She bided her time until the right moment came to make her move."
"The negotiators bided their time, waiting for the market to turn in their favor."
"He bided by the fire all evening, saying little."
'Bide' survives in modern English almost entirely thanks to one idiom — 'bide your time' — keeping alive an Old English verb that once meant simply to dwell.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bided
'Bided' derives from the Old English strong verb 'bīdan', which meant to remain, endure, or await, formed from the Proto-Germanic root '*bīdaną'. It is closely related to the longer form 'abide', from Middle English 'abiden', which absorbed the same root with an added prefix. Cognates appear across Germanic languages, such as Old Norse 'bíða'. Over time, the plain verb 'bide' fell largely out of everyday use, leaving 'bided' most familiar today only in the idiom 'bide one's time'.
Related word forms
How bided is actually used
'Bided' appears almost exclusively within the fixed expression 'bide one's time', which carries a connotation of patient, strategic waiting — often with an implication that action will follow. Outside this idiom, the bare use of 'bide/bided' to mean 'dwell or remain' is archaic or regional. The spelling 'bid' as a past tense of 'bide' is nonstandard.
Easily confused with bided
'Abide' means to endure, tolerate, or remain (as in 'can't abide rudeness' or ' abide by rules'), while 'bide' is chiefly used intransitively to mean wait or remain, almost always in the idiom 'bide one's time'.