pedal

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A foot-operated lever used for actuating or controlling a mechanism, as in a loom, sewing machine, piano, or organ.
2. n. A similar foot-operated part attached to a crank and used for powering various devices, such as a bicycle.
3. n. Music A pedal point.
4. n. Music A pedal keyboard.
5. adj. Of or relating to a pedal.
6. adj. Of or relating to a foot or footlike part: the pedal extremities.
7. v. To use or operate a pedal or pedals.
8. v. To ride a bicycle.
9. v. To operate the pedals of.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Pertaining to or connected with a foot or the feet: as, pedal extremities.
2. Technically— Of or pertaining to a foot-like part of the body, as of a mollusk; podial: as, a pedal ganglion.
3. Of or pertaining to the pes or hind foot only: opposed to manual.
4. Pertaining to the feet of perpendiculars let fall from one point upon tangents to a fixed locus called a basis.
5. 4 (ped′ al). In music, relating to a pedal.
6. In conchology: Any muscle of the foot or podium of a univalve. The posterior adductor of a bivalve, when there are two. See cuts under Astartidæ and Tridaenidæ.
7. n. Any part of a machine or apparatus which is intended to receive and transmit power from the foot of the operator; a treadle: as, the pedals of a bicycle.
8. n. In musical instruments, a foot-lever; a metal or wooden key or projecting bar operated by the foot. , , In the pianoforte two or three pedals are in use: one to lift the dampers from the strings (the damper-pedal or loud pedal); one to introduce a muffler between the hammers and the strings, or to lessen the distance from which the hammers strike, or to move them so that they shall strike only one string instead of the usual two or three (the soft pedal); and sometimes one to hold up the dampers that happen to be lifted when the pedal is pressed down (the sustaining pedal). The use of the damper-pedal is indicated by ped. at the beginning of the passage where it is needed, and by a * at its end. The use of the soft pedal is usually indicated by some such expression as una corda, ‘one string.’ The use of the sustaining pedal is usually left to the player's discretion
9. n. Same as organ-point.
10. n. A pedal curve or surface, or one of which another is the pedal curve or surface.
11. To work a pedal; use the pedals, as of a piano, organ, bicycle, etc.
12. In geometry, pertaining to the feet of transversals on to the sides of a triangle through a given point and the vertices.
13. n. In geometry, a pedal triangle (which see, under triangle).

Wiktionary

1. n. A lever operated by one's foot that is used to control a machine or mechanism, such as a bicycle or piano
2. n. medicine a foot or footlike part.
3. v. To operate a pedal attached to a wheel in a continuous circular motion.
4. v. To operate a bicycle.
5. adj. Of or relating to the foot.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Of or pertaining to the foot, or to feet, literally or figuratively; specifically (Zoöl.), pertaining to the foot of a mollusk.
2. adj. Of or pertaining to a pedal; having pedals.
3. n. (Mech.) A lever or key acted on by the foot, as in the pianoforte to raise the dampers, or in the organ to open and close certain pipes; a treadle, as in a lathe or a bicycle.
4. n. (Geom.) A pedal curve or surface.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a lever that is operated with the foot
2. n. a sustained bass note
3. adj. of or relating to the feet
4. v. operate the pedals on a keyboard instrument
5. v. ride a bicycle