straddle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To stand or sit with a leg on each side of; bestride: straddle a horse.
2. v. To be on both sides of; extend over or across: a car straddling the centerline.
3. v. To appear to favor both sides of (an issue).
4. v. To fire shots behind and in front of (a target) in order to determine the range.
5. v. To walk, stand, or sit with the legs wide apart, especially to sit astride.
6. v. To spread out in a disorderly way; sprawl.
7. v. To appear to favor both sides of an issue.
8. n. The act or posture of sitting astride.
9. n. An equivocal or a noncommittal position.
10. n. The option to buy or sell a specific asset, such as a block of stock, at a predetermined price before a certain date.
11. idiom. straddle the fence Informal To be undecided or uncommitted.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To stand or walk with the legs wide apart; sit or stand astride.
2. To include or favor two apparently opposite or different things; occupy or take up an equivocal position in regard to something: as, to straddle on the tariff question.
3. To place one leg on one side and the other on the other side of; stand or sit astride of: as, to straddle a fence or a horse.
4. To occupy or take up an equivocal position in regard to; appear to favor both sides of: as, to straddle a political question.
5. To double (the blind) in poker.
6. n. The act of standing or sitting with the legs far apart.
7. n. The distance between the feet or legs of one who straddles.
8. n. In speculative dealings on 'change, a “privilege” or speculative contract covering both a “put” and a “call”—that is, giving the holder the right at his option of calling, within a specified number of days, for a certain stock or commodity at a price named in the contract, or
9. n. of delivering to the person to whom the consideration had been paid a certain stock or commodity upon terms similarly stated. See call, n., 15, privilege, n., 5, and put, n., 5. Also called spread eagle.
10. n. In the game of poker, a doubling of the blind by one of the players.
11. n. An attempt to take an equivocal or non-committal position: as, a straddle in a party platform.
12. n. In mining, one of the vertical timbers by which the different sets are supported at a fixed distance from each other in the shaft; a vertical post used in various ways in timbering a mine, as in supporting the framework of a shaft at a hanging-on place.
13. Astride; with straddled legs: as, to ride straddle.
14. n. A sort of tumble-bug; a scarabæid beetle with long legs, of the genus Canthon, as C. lævis. See cut under tumble-bug.

Wiktionary

1. v. To sit or stand with a leg on each side of something.
2. v. To form a disorderly sprawl.
3. v. military To fire successive artillery shots in front of and behind of a target, especially in order to determine its range.
4. v. poker To place a voluntary raise prior to receiving cards (only by the first player after the blinds).
5. n. a posture in which one straddles something
6. n. finance an investment strategy involving trade in derivatives
7. n. poker A voluntary raise made prior to receiving cards by the first player after the blinds.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To part the legs wide; to stand or to walk with the legs far apart.
2. v. To stand with the ends staggered; -- said of the spokes of a wagon wheel where they join the hub.
3. v. To place one leg on one side and the other on the other side of; to stand or sit astride of.
4. n. The act of standing, sitting, or walking, with the feet far apart.
5. n. The position, or the distance between the feet, of one who straddles; as, a wide straddle.
6. n. Broker's Cant A stock option giving the holder the double privilege of a “put” and a “call,” i. e., securing to the buyer of the option the right either to demand of the seller at a certain price, within a certain time, certain securities, or to require him to take at the same price, and within the same time, the same securities.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the option to buy or sell a given stock (or stock index or commodity future) at a given price before a given date; consists of an equal number of put and call options
2. n. the act of sitting or standing astride
3. v. be noncommittal
4. n. a noncommittal or equivocal position
5. v. range or extend over; occupy a certain area
6. v. sit or stand astride of
7. n. a gymnastic exercise performed with a leg on either side of the parallel bars