Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A tricycle.
  • noun Any of several early bicycles having pedals attached to the front wheel.
  • noun An early bicycle propelled by pushing the feet along the ground while straddling the vehicle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An electric jib-crane which runs on a single track and is held upright by the post running between two rails at the top.
  • noun A light vehicle or carriage, with two wheels or three, impelled by the rider.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Early two-wheeled conveyance upon which one rode astride a wooden frame propelled by means of pushing the feet against the ground
  • noun archaic Generic term for three and four-wheeled machines driven by foot or hand levers to the rear or front axle
  • noun archaic a late-1860s bicycle driven by cranks on the front axle
  • noun a bicycle

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of several early bicycles with pedals on the front wheel
  • noun a vehicle with three wheels that is moved by foot pedals

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French vélocipède : Latin vēlōx, vēlōc-, fast; see velocity + Latin pēs, ped-, foot; see –ped.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin veloci dative singular of velox ("swift") + ped ("foot")

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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!

    Mates at Billabong 1911

  • 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.

    American Connections James Burke 2007

  • 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.

    American Connections James Burke 2007

  • Propped against the sleek spokes of a velocipede was a shiny sled of just the sort he had always wanted as a boy.

    Once An Angel Medeiros, Teresa, 1962- 1993

  • 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

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 483, April 4, 1885 Various

  • -- 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.

    Scientific American, Volume 22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures. Various

  • A velocipede was his grandfather's offering and was received with shouts of delight.

    Ethel Morton's Holidays 1903

  • 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.

    Local News from Wilmington Star News 2009

  • 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.

    pfblogs.org: The Ad-Free Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator 2009

  • 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.

    MIND MELD: The Tricky Trope of Time Travel 2009

Comments

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  • an early bicycle (the kind with the giant front wheel and tiny back one)

    February 4, 2007

  • Or a very fast moving cousin of the centipede.

    February 4, 2007

  • Precisely. Especially a cousin with those big claws that can slice open prey. ;)

    February 4, 2007

  • from Louisa May Alcott's "An Old Fashioned Girl."

    October 1, 2007

  • This sounds like a pokemon.

    October 1, 2007

  • In addition, velocipede is applied to persons who move swiftly (Oxford English Dictionary).

    July 26, 2011

  • From the Wikipedia article “Velocipede”. (Click to distend. N.B.: The image is captioned in German.) See also manuped, tandem tricycle, and monocycle.

    October 7, 2011