I. əˈ- adverb
Etymology: a- (I) + stride (n.)
1. : with one leg on each side
women seldom rode astride
2. : with the legs stretched wide apart
standing astride with arms folded
II. preposition
1. : on or above and with one leg on each side of : bestriding
astride a horse
: straddling
her little baby astride her hips — William Beebe
2. : placed on lying on both sides of
established frontier provinces along or astride the river — W.G.East
an enemy roadblock astride his regiment's supply route — New York Times
3. : extending or stretching over or across (as from one limit to another) : spanning , bridging
no single individual stands more firmly astride the history of England from 1906 onwards — Times Literary Supplement
stands astride two worlds — our own and the utterly alien world of the Greenland Eskimos — Jeannette Mirsky