BRIDLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bridle mean? 

• BRIDLE (noun)
  The noun BRIDLE has 2 senses:

1. headgear for a horse; includes a headstall and bit and reins to give the rider or driver control

2. the act of restraining power or action or limiting excess

  Familiarity information: BRIDLE used as a noun is rare.

• BRIDLE (verb)
  The verb BRIDLE has 3 senses:

1. anger or take offense

2. put a bridle on

3. respond to the reins, as of horses

  Familiarity information: BRIDLE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BRIDLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Headgear for a horse; includes a headstall and bit and reins to give the rider or driver control

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("bridle" is a kind of...):

headgear (stable gear consisting of any part of a harness that fits about the horse's head)

Meronyms (parts of "bridle"):

bit (piece of metal held in horse's mouth by reins and used to control the horse while riding)

cheekpiece (either of two straps of a bridle that connect the bit to the headpiece)

headpiece; headstall (the band that is the part of a bridle that fits around a horse's head)

noseband; nosepiece (a strap that is the part of a bridle that goes over the animal's nose)

rein (one of a pair of long straps (usually connected to the bit or the headpiece) used to control a horse)

Holonyms ("bridle" is a part of...):

harness (stable gear consisting of an arrangement of leather straps fitted to a draft animal so that it can be attached to and pull a cart)

Derivation:

bridle (respond to the reins, as of horses)

bridle (put a bridle on)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of restraining power or action or limiting excess

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

bridle; check; curb

Context example:

his common sense is a bridle to his quick temper

Hypernyms ("bridle" is a kind of...):

restraint (the act of controlling by restraining someone or something)

• BRIDLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bridle    ... he / she / it bridles   
Past simple: bridled   
Past participle: bridled   
-ing form: bridling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Anger or take offense

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Context example:

She bridled at his suggestion to elope

Hypernyms (to "bridle" is one way to...):

anger; see red (become angry)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Put a bridle on

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

bridle horses

Hypernyms (to "bridle" is one way to...):

cumber; encumber; restrain (restrict (someone or something) so as to make free movement difficult)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bridle"):

snaffle (fit or restrain with a snaffle)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

unbridle (remove the bridle from (a horse or mule))

Derivation:

bridle (headgear for a horse; includes a headstall and bit and reins to give the rider or driver control)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Respond to the reins, as of horses

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "bridle" is one way to...):

answer; reply; respond (react verbally)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

bridle (headgear for a horse; includes a headstall and bit and reins to give the rider or driver control)

 Context examples 

Then the woodman laughed, and said, How can that be? you cannot reach up to the horse’s bridle.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

I described, as well as I could, our way of riding; the shape and use of a bridle, a saddle, a spur, and a whip; of harness and wheels.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The walls of bare unpainted planks were studded here and there with great wooden pins, placed at irregular intervals and heights, from which hung over-tunics, wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I so far agree with what Miss Trotwood has remarked,” observed Miss Murdstone, bridling, “that I consider our lamented Clara to have been, in all essential respects, a mere child.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His bridle is missing, so that Simpson must have put this on.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Try to get hold of my horse's bridle and lead him to me: you are not afraid?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A Russian prince condescended to sit in a corner for an hour and talk with a massive lady, dressed like Hamlet's mother in black velvet with a pearl bridle under her chin.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Edmund was close to her; he was speaking to her; he was evidently directing her management of the bridle; he had hold of her hand; she saw it, or the imagination supplied what the eye could not reach.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He sat perched on a high bay horse, and held on to the bridle of a spirited black palfrey, the hides of both glistening from a long run.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Having once caught the bridle, he mastered it directly and sprang to his saddle; grimacing grimly as he made the effort, for it wrenched his sprain.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)