Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Quadruped or four-footed; especially, going on all fours, or adapted or restricted to that mode of progression: as, the quadrupedal shape; quadrupedal locomotion.
- n. A quadruped.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Zoöl.) Having four feet; of or pertaining to a quadruped.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having four feet
Etymologies
- From quadruped + -al. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Now we have the possibility that the chimps and gorillas may actually be on their way from a bipedal ancestor to a quadrupedal descendant!”
“Food for myself and the various quadrupedal residents of my house has been procured.”
“The sight of the armored, snorting, quadrupedal intruder, eyes bloodshot and nostrils flaring in the moonlight, gave even the belligerent Krasvin pause.”
“And of course, wherever you go out of doors, your quadrupedal pal can follow.”
Robert Rodi: Mad Cow by Moonlight: Mucca Pazza Enchants Evanston
“Could anyone really believe that a quadrupedal animal would give birth to an animal with three limbs, one of which was a leg adapted for bipedalism, and then have to wait to fro the second leg to ‘evolve’ whatever that would mean in that context?”
“While still quadrupedal omnivores, the range of body types and sizes among dogs is extraordinary.”
“They are often seen mocking the second group, which treats their dogs as quadrupedal, slobbery people.”
“Chimpanzees, which are mostly quadrupedal, do not show these vertebral adaptations.”
“We have to admit that the fossil record connecting the upright-walking ape Australopithecus to the presumably quadrupedal ancestor that we share with chimpanzees is still poor.”
“After D. P. Domning, ‘The earliest known fully quadrupedal sirenian’,Nature 413 11 Oct. 2001, 626–7, fig.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quadrupedal’.
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pede-, ped-, -pede, -pedal, -pod, -po...
denoting or relating to feet ; of or like a foot
centipede, bipedal, pedometer, millipede, arthropod, quadrupedal, pedicure, pedal, pedopathy, tripod, monopod, pedatifid and 9 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
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begins with "qu"
"Qu..." seems to produce some extraordinarily euphonious words.
quiescent, quantifiable, quadrilateral, quackery, quaff, quadrennial, quadruplicate, quaking aspen, qualmish, quandaries, quark, quartziferous and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quadrupedal.
chained_bear I know the word quadruped, but for some reason I never thought of it in an adjectival way. Usage:
"Stephen... looked back to the boulder to estimate the orang-utang's ordinary unhurried quadrupedal speed over a moderate slope."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 229 Mar 5, 2008