stridulate
v 1: make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing together special
bodily structures; "male insects such as crickets or
grasshoppers stridulate" [syn: stridulate, clitter]
stridulate intransitive verb (-lated; -lating)
Etymology: back-formation from stridulation, from French,
high-pitched sound, from Latin stridulus shrill Date: 1838
to make a shrill creaking noise by rubbing together special bodily
structures — used especially of male insects (as crickets or grasshoppers)
• stridulationnoun • stridulatoryadjective
stridulate v.intr. (of insects, esp. the cicada and grasshopper) make a shrill sound by rubbing esp. the legs or wing-cases together. Derivatives: stridulant adj. stridulation
n. Etymology: F striduler f. L stridulus creaking (as STRIDENT)
stridulate
v.intr. (of insects, esp. the cicada and grasshopper) make a shrill sound by
rubbing esp. the legs or wing-cases together. øøstridulant adj. stridulation
n. [F striduler f. L stridulus creaking (as STRIDENT)]
Stridulate \Strid"u*late\, v. t. [See Stridulous.]
To make a shrill, creaking noise; specifically (Zo["o]l.), to
make a shrill or musical sound, such as is made by the males
of many insects.
On most web browsers you can double click any word on this page to see what definitions I have for that word.
This dictionary server is not an authoratative source of information for anything. Like almost everything at sorabji.com, I set this up for my own purposes. In this case the purpose is to
browse words and ideas at random. An automatically generated page that produces 1000 Random Words
is my gateway to this resource. I also attempt a word of the day project,
in which I attempt to write something about myself starting with interesting words that I find through the Wordswarm Random Words Pages. I have made
available the complete 1828 Webster's Dictionary, which many feel is the greatest English dictionary ever published.
Other random links of mine include the Sorabji.com Random Link, which sends you to one of
over 7,000 pages on my web sites; the Face Server produces random images of
human faces; clicking the Random WAYD link shows you a random posting to my "What Are You Doing?" board; the Random USPS
Mailbox link sends you to a page with information about a random mailbox; and the random pictures page page of sorabji.com shows one of over 11,000 random images any time you load the page. On an unrelated note, I have begun making several thousand pages of legal documents searchable.