Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tricycle.
- n. Any of several early bicycles having pedals attached to the front wheel.
- n. An early bicycle propelled by pushing the feet along the ground while straddling the vehicle.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An electric jib-crane which runs on a single track and is held upright by the post running between two rails at the top.
- n. A light vehicle or carriage, with two wheels or three, impelled by the rider. One of the older forms of this carriage consisted of two wheels of nearly equal size, placed one before the other, and connected by a beam on which the driver's seat was fixed. The rider, sitting astride the machine, propelled it by the alternate thrust of each foot on the ground. This form dates from the early part of the nineteenth century. Later, treadles operating cranks on the axle of the front wheel came into use, and many modified and improved kinds have become popular under the name of bicycle. (See also
tricycle .) Light boats driven by a paddle-wheel or wheels operated by cranks and treadles, and known as water-velocipedes, have also been brought into use. See also cuts underbicycle and tricycle.
Wiktionary
- n. Early two-wheeled conveyance upon which one rode astride a wooden frame propelled by means of pushing the feet against the ground
- n. archaic Generic term for three and four-wheeled machines driven by foot or hand levers to the rear or front axle
- n. archaic a late-1860s bicycle driven by cranks on the front axle
- n. a bicycle
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A light road carriage propelled by the feet of the rider. Originally it was propelled by striking the tips of the toes on the roadway, but commonly now by the action of the feet on a pedal or pedals connected with the axle of one or more of the wheels, and causing their revolution. They are made in many forms, with two, three, or four wheels. See bicycle, and tricycle.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of several early bicycles with pedals on the front wheel
- n. a vehicle with three wheels that is moved by foot pedals
Etymologies
- From Latin veloci dative singular of velox ("swift") + ped ("foot") (Wiktionary)
- French vélocipède : Latin vēlōx, vēlōc-, fast; see velocity + Latin pēs, ped-, foot; see -ped. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Personally, I think a velocipede is about Cecil's form, and it's absolute insult to a pony like Bobs to ask him to carry him!”
“A craze for three years, the gizmo was also known as a velocipede a bicycle before the bicycle; with no pedals you “walked” it along.”
“Propped against the sleek spokes of a velocipede was a shiny sled of just the sort he had always wanted as a boy.”
“The amusing engraving of this velocipede, which is mentioned under the name of the _aquatic tripod_, puts us in mind of another document of the same kind that we have seen in the gallery of prints of the National”
“-- William Volk, Buffalo, N.Y. -- This invention relates to a new three-wheeled velocipede, which is so arranged that the driving wheels, although mounted on separate axles, will make equal numbers of revolutions, as long as the machine is to be kept in a straight direction, while they can be disconnected when the device is to be turned in a circle.”
“A velocipede was his grandfather's offering and was received with shouts of delight.”
“Although the origins of the bicycle are difficult to pin down, one early incarnation known as a velocipede was patented in this country on June 26, 1819, according to the Smithsonian Institute.”
“Obviously, the conversation didn't end there but eventually, despite threats of unchecking it and rechecking it again as a "metal sculpture," "velocipede," or "personal mobility device", I pulled out my credit card, paid the fee, and started making some phone calls.”
“In a way, even Well's Time Machine works like this: little enough time is actually spent on trying to explain how the temporal velocipede works, more on exploring the future of the world.”
“Where you'll be able to procure a Capital Bikeshare velocipede (GGW)”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘velocipede’.
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50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
walking, bicycle, bus, train, motorcycle, airplane, car, truck, segway, limousine, roller coaster, wheelbarrow and 130 more...
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Bike Snob'isms
words I saw while reading the Bike Snob
helment, scranus, podium, sangue borse, hipster, dandydom, effete, douchebag, douchebags, Lobweh, Portland, brakeless track bike and 323 more...
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*e?e
Words whose last and third-to-last letters are both "e".
here, eke, were, complete, mete, replete, adhere, where, mere, sphere, austere, aesthete and 99 more...
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phrontistery-v
from phrontistery.info
vulviform, vulvar, vulturine, vulpine, vulpicide, vulpecular, vulnerose, vulsella, vulnerary, vulnerate, vulgus, vulgo and 396 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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CycList
Anything related to cycling; no motorcycling, please.
frame, pedal, crank arm, top tube, down tube, seat tube, seat stay, chain stay, saddle, fork, hub, rim and 97 more...
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Talking About Words
The favorite words of Talking Tyrants
dolorous, parsimonious, apotemnophilia, odalisque, tuberoinfundibular, morass, ostentatious, sybaritic, vermilion, onomatopoeia, eschatology, teleology and 49 more...
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Dan: You read this already. — Your p...
Long ago, I learned a useful habit from a good friend: Every time he looked up a word in his dictionary, he’d put a mark next to it. His explanation for this was vague at best, but I understood a...
dittography, haplology, haplography, idiomology, cacoepy, orthoepist, psellism, pronunciation spe..., galbe, theropod, publican, sciolist and 111 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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samuraizack's Words
floccinaucinihili..., pneumonoultramicr..., bombastic, existentialistic, velocipede, aglet, anatomical snuffbox, wonk, tang, funambulist, quakebuttock, flews and 390 more...
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Alaric's Words
chelation, bradykinetic, twelfth, dank, kulak, oneiric, cathexis, yonder, quern, lissome, naiad, krakatoan and 124 more...
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drseatbelt's Words
bilious, centenarian, droll, palliative, cortege, stultify, polysemy, suffuse, lambent, timorous, aegis, modicum and 236 more...
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19 c.
some of the interesting words i've had to look up while reading 19th century lit
maugre, connate, alembic, azote, vaticination, valetudinarian, dight, scutcheon, lammergeyer, chamois, asseverate, prebendary and 199 more...
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Scriptie: The Shakespearean Language ...
It isn't all about fucking cocksuckers. There aren't too many shows on TV that use Wordie words. (So of course it was cancelled.)
Best viewed in cloud format.sweggen, hooplehead, cocksucker, dope, yankton, camp, pussy, bonanza, laudanum, chinaman, hoecake, free gratis and 210 more...
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Spod's Words
corpulent, squidge, squiffy, sinuosity, ebullient, finger, penetrate, stimulate, recalcitrant, recidivist, dunnock, rococo and 152 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for velocipede.
leaden
From the Wikipedia article “Velocipede”. (Click to distend. N.B.: The image is captioned in German.) See also manuped, tandem tricycle, and monocycle. Oct 7, 2011
biocon In addition, velocipede is applied to persons who move swiftly (Oxford English Dictionary). Jul 26, 2011
kewpid This sounds like a pokemon. Oct 1, 2007
jaime_d from Louisa May Alcott's "An Old Fashioned Girl." Sep 30, 2007
chained_bear Precisely. Especially a cousin with those big claws that can slice open prey. ;) Feb 4, 2007
seanahan Or a very fast moving cousin of the centipede. Feb 4, 2007
chained_bear an early bicycle (the kind with the giant front wheel and tiny back one)
Feb 4, 2007