pedal
Americannoun
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pedals
plural
-
a foot-operated lever used to control certain mechanisms, as automobiles, or to play or modify the sounds of certain musical instruments, as pianos, organs, or harps.
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a leverlike part worked by the foot to supply power in various mechanisms, as the bicycle.
-
Music.
-
a foot-operated keyboard, as on an organ or harpsichord.
-
any of the keys of such a keyboard.
-
verb (used without object)
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pedals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pedaled,
past participle, past
-
pedalled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
pedaling,
present participle
-
pedalling
present participle (especially British)
verb (used with object)
-
pedals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pedaled,
past participle, past
-
pedalled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
pedaling,
present participle
-
pedalling
present participle (especially British)
adjective
-
of or relating to a foot or the feet.
-
of or relating to a pedal or pedals.
-
using pedals.
a pedal mechanism.
noun
verb
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to propel (a bicycle, boat, etc) by operating the pedals
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(intr) to operate the pedals of an organ, piano, etc, esp in a certain way
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to work (pedals of any kind)
adjective
Usage
What does pedal mean? A pedal is a foot-operated lever that controls some kind of mechanism. The most common kinds of pedals are those on a bicycle, the brake pedal and gas pedal (accelerator) in a car, and the pedals used in musical instruments like pianos and organs. Pedal can also be a verb meaning to operate a pedal, as in You’d better pedal faster! In American English, the past tense is spelled pedaled and the continuous tense is spelled pedaling. In British English, as with many other words, the l is doubled: pedalled and pedalling. Example: When I was a kid, I liked to pedal my bike as fast as I could and then take my feet off the pedals and watch them keep spinning.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
pedalsimple
-
pedalssimple
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have pedaledperfect
-
have pedalledperfect
-
has pedaledperfect
-
has pedalledperfect
-
am pedalingprogressive
-
am pedallingprogressive
-
are pedalingprogressive
-
are pedallingprogressive
-
is pedalingprogressive
-
is pedallingprogressive
-
have been pedalingperfect progressive
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have been pedallingperfect progressive
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has been pedalingperfect progressive
-
has been pedallingperfect progressive
Past
-
pedaledsimple
-
pedalledsimple
-
had pedaledperfect
-
had pedalledperfect
-
was pedalingprogressive
-
was pedallingprogressive
-
were pedalingprogressive
-
were pedallingprogressive
-
had been pedalingperfect progressive
-
had been pedallingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pedal
1605–15; (< French pédale ) < Latin pedālis of the feet. See ped- 2, -al 1
Explanation
Anything you push with your feet to control a machine, vehicle, or instrument is a pedal. When you use a sewing machine, you push the pedal with your foot to make the needle move up and down. When you see the letters ped, something related to the foot might just be afoot. Pedestrians walk around by foot, and a pedicure is when your tootsies get the spa treatment. Those letters don’t always relate to feet, but it does with pedal, the noun or verb. The controls on the floor of your car are pedals, and if you put the pedal to the metal, it means you press as hard as you can on the gas pedal. Woohoo!
Vocabulary lists containing pedal
Body Language: Ped, Pod ("Foot")
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Commonly Confused Words, List 2
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Commonly Confused Words, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The company’s robotaxis differ from others already on the road because they do not have driver’s controls such as a steering wheel or gas pedal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Gaik Pobokhian, when she mistook the gas and brake pedals and hit the gas pedal “way too hard.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
The Tour has fixed something in Paris: taking what used to be a mostly-dull pedal around the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées and adding a riotous, repeat ascent which separates the best riders from the crowd.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
They work remotely and came together for a few days of activities that included painting, pedal boating and navigating a ropes course.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Otto said, “I’ll pedal us out there. You can rest on the handlebars.”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Class 3 e-bikes can only be ridden by riders who are 16 or older, include pedals and can reach speeds of up to 28 mph.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
The move is a first for a purpose-built autonomous vehicle like Zoox, which doesn’t have pedals or a steering wheel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Just a few days earlier, U.S. regulators proposed nixing rules requiring manual brake pedals in autonomous vehicles.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
Cybercab doesn’t have External link a steering wheel or pedals.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
A slim man with dark hair pedals slowly by us on a dilapidated bicycle.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
"It's a great honour to receive the fantastic prize and I look forward to being pedaled around all of the media studios to air my story," said Mr Can.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2025
We had doubts as we pedaled off from the Pacific Coast cliffs and onto our summer bicycle route across America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
He borrowed a friend’s bicycle in Santa Monica late last week, pedaled up to his house and checked out the inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2025
On 1 July 2023, as Tour de France riders pedaled out of Bilbao, Spain, toward the French Pyrenees mountains, sports cardiologist Andre La Gerche tuned in from Melbourne, Australia.
From Science Magazine ● May 14, 2024
And then she pumped her fist in the air and her bike teetered for a moment before she leaned forward and pedaled faster, leaving me behind.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
Most days, Mr. Voiles said, he pedalled the animals up to a hill above the Mississippi River where he braids crosses, fleurs-de-lis and other items, which he sells to pay for pet food and rent.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2024
Grabbing his bicycle from a parking lot, he pedalled on Shanghai's deserted roads past swank office towers to find a place to pitch a small tent he and his girlfriend had bought for travelling.
From Reuters ● May 27, 2022
The show's soloist, Jessica Aszodi, was among of group of cyclists who pedalled their way through new show Houses Slide, generating electricity for the stage lights and amps.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2021
Knowing that such nonsense is being pedalled publicly, you cannot help but speculate what Benedict intended by publishing his letter earlier this month.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 20, 2019
The other pedalled its narrow shoulders up and down, stalking the open door.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
When the film opens at Oak Street’s idyllic summer block party, complete with cookouts and kids happily pedaling together on their bikes, he purposefully evokes the atmosphere of the movies he covertly cites.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
In the process, he broke his own record for pedaling up the iconic Col du Tormalet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
“This is my favorite place in the world, no matter what the crowds are like,” he said before pedaling off.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
They differ from other products on the market in the way the pedaling mechanism works — the e-bikes have no chains.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
He will remember the sounds of the other children in the neighborhood, laughing and pedaling their Big Wheels down the road.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"I'm just kicking myself because I had to stop pedalling with 20 metres to the line. It is what it is."
From Barron's ● Jan. 21, 2026
In the letter addressed to the Health Secretary Jeremy Miles, The British Dental Association Cymru Wales accused the Welsh government of pedalling "half-truths" about their messaging and statistics.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2025
"The pedalling feels very different and the overall sensations of moving on the water, either laterally or vertically, is wildly different from any kind of cycling," Lambie says.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024
The spray-painted bicycle paid homage to Félix Patricio Teófilo, a Mexican immigrant who, like them, made his living pedalling to deliver food.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Eric was squealing louder than ever and pedalling the air with his legs.
From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
