To bide means to wait patiently for the right moment, often while enduring something difficult or uncomfortable. When you bide your time, you're watching, preparing, and waiting for exactly the right opportunity to act, rather than rushing in immediately.

A chess player might bide her time through several quiet moves, setting up pieces carefully before launching a winning attack. A basketball team trailing by a few points might bide their time, playing solid defense and waiting for their opponents to make a mistake. The phrase “bide your time” suggests strategic patience: you could act now, but you're choosing to wait because timing matters.

The word appears most often in that phrase, “bide your time,” though you can technically bide anything you're waiting through. It carries a sense of calm confidence, of someone who knows that rushing won't help. When your older sister graduates from college and you're still in elementary school, you might bide your time until you're old enough to follow in her footsteps. You're learning, growing, and preparing for when your moment comes.