bide v EDD ~ v 1, 2; ADD 2 'to stay' for sense 1; EDD 1: let bide for sense 2.
   1 To remain, stay put; to be aground.
   1858 [LOWELL] ii, 262 Bide a minute. 1891 PACKARD 84 [The cow's] nautical owner informs us, in sturdy Labradorian dialect, that she had been brought up this spring. 'I made her fast to her moorings, and there let her bide to eat the grass.' 1924 ENGLAND 89-90 'Look where y're at, man! Wait, now,' as the unfortunate scrambles out on a drifting pan, 'bide where y're to. Don't jump, yet.' [1954] 1972 RUSSELL 19 If we go in there now, we'll have to bide there five or six hours till [the tide] rises again. T 80/3-464 You let hundreds [of cod-fish] bide in the linnet; you'd never haul the leader, see. T 143-65 He tied on, they bid there; a little wind come down. T 181/2-65 They runned her up the arm and that's where she bid—sunk down. But they never got her on the beach. T 187-65 And I bid up then, had my dinner 'long wi' grandfather. T 187/8-65 She bid there then till the ice all spawned abroad, and went down, and she settled down herself. T 296/7-66 They got in the punt ... and they bid there four hours, he told me, seeing if they could see any signs of any grease floating up. T 450-67 He bided then, see, till somebody else get sick and come after him. 1972 BROWN 154 Can't take a spell, b'ys, but we'll bide a while and go fishin'.
   2 In traditional phr leff him/her/it bide: let/leave him alone.
   1937 DEVINE 10 Let 'em bide. P 87-62 Leff 'em bide till father come, he'll chastise un. C 71-115 Better lef en bide now.
   3 Comb bide-in feast: social gathering held shortly after baby is born at which a special cake ('groaning cake') is served to guests. Cp GROANING.
   1896 J A Folklore ix, 22 Very soon after [a birth] occurs, with little regard to the feelings or nerves of the mother, a feast is made particularly for the elderly women, of whom all in the neighbourhood are present. This is called the 'bide-in feast' and at it the 'groaning cake' is distributed.

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