Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to ride high

to ride high

11 5.9
To be very successful and confident for a time
  • phrasal verb
  • /raɪd haɪ/
  • Informal
translation icon : estar en la cresta de la ola
  • After her latest album topped the charts, the singer felt she was riding high in her career.
  • riding high in the polls
  • riding high on success
  • still riding high

And folks, I'm still riding high off off off last night's interview with Barack Obama.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, we hope you're riding high and living the dream.

    Chalet Girl (2011)

  • Poly is riding high on 34 straight victories.

    When the Game Stands Tall (2014)

  • I'm riding high right now.

    The Magician of Lublin (1979)

  • Nintendo was riding high on the success of their first home console.

    Blog text (18)

  • Romney has continued to ride high on momentum gained from his first debate performance.

    Blog text (13)

  • K-State is still riding high after its impressive victory at Oklahoma.

    Blog text (1)

  • Guest blogging is riding high right now, and the whole Internet marketing sphere is buzzing with talk about it.

    Blog text (20)

  • So Josh Shapiro is riding high in Pennsylvania and seems like he is bound to keep the governor's mansion there blue.

    Megyn Kelly

  • The Ducks still are riding high from a school-best third-place finish at the Pac-10 Championship.

    Blog text (22)

  • Argentina's Frepaso-UCR alliance, riding high in the polls, has pledged not to touch the law that freezes the peso-dollar rate.

    Academic text (1998)

Synonyms

to fly high
vsto ride high
  • Informal
8 3.8

To feel very happy and successful after a big achievement

is broad success and steady confidence rather than brief excited feeling
to ride the wave of popularity
vsto ride high
5.4

To gain from a sudden rise in public interest

is general success and popularity often over a period rather than a sudden spike

Antonyms

to fail
898 1.0

Not succeed in doing something you wanted to do

decline
439 3.9

A gradual loss in amount, quality, or value

How Successful

to triumph
60 3.4
to ride high
  • Informal
11 5.9
to prosper
88 3.7
to succeed
846 2.0
to do well
520 1.2

Surface Forms

ride high infinitive
riding high present participle
rides high third person singular
rode high past
ridden high past participle

Morphology

ride + high

The overall sense is a metaphorical extension: 'high' signals an elevated state and 'ride' suggests being carried by that state, so a learner can partially infer feeling elevated or on top. However, mapping that to the more specific sense of being successful, confident, or popular is not fully predictable from the parts alone (meanings vary cross-linguistically and require some idiomatic familiarity).

Etymology

The verb ride high may come from the image of someone who rides and sits high above others, like on a tall horse or a big wave, so they look powerful and above the rest. That's why it now means 'to be very successful or confident'.