Other forms: ridding
To rid is to free a place or a person of something unwanted. Rid the house of mice, get rid of it, rid yourself of.
It takes of and is nearly always used in get rid of, which is one of the commonest phrases in English. On its own it is more formal: rid the country of corruption. Note good riddance, meaning glad to see it go; and that the past tense is rid rather than ridded in almost all uses, which is unusual.
1verbridTo free a place or person of something unwanted.
“We finally managed to rid the kitchen of mice.”
rid is a freeing from.
Also accepted in games: clear
Middle English ridden meant to clear a space, probably from Old Norse rythja, to clear land. Riddance comes from the same clearing.
Proto-Indo-European
*Hrew-
Proto-Indo-European
*Hrewdʰ- — to clear land
Proto-Germanic
*riudijaną — to clear
Old English
*ryddan — to remove debris, obstructions, etc., from (a place), to clear
Middle English
ridden — to remove debris, obstructions, etc., from (a place), to clear; to complete (something unfinished); to free (someone or something); to relieve (someone); etc.
English, today
rid
Built from
The verb is derived from Middle English ridden (“to remove debris, obstructions, etc., from (a place), to clear; to complete (something unfinished); to free (someone or something); to relieve (someone); etc.”), probably from Old English ryddan (“to remove debris, obstructions, etc., from (a place), to clear”) (the past participle form ġeryd is attested), from Proto-Germanic riudijaną (“to clear”), from Proto-Indo-European Hrewdʰ- (“to clear land”), or possibly from Hrew- (“to dig out, tear out; to open; to acquire”). The verb was probably also influenced by the following:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA