pedal
Americannoun
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pedals
plural
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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:
“I would love to have some type of cultural design, like Aztec, Latin-inspired pedal boats there just because of what MacArthur Park represents and the community it represents,” Kim said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
She compared the choice to braking for a stop sign, pressing gently on the pedal earlier to avoid having to stomp on it later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Class 3 is pedal assist but goes up to 28 miles per hour, require riders to be at least 16 years old and cannot typically be used on bike paths.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Fans prepared to spend five figures book all-inclusive cycling trips where teams of concierges do everything but pedal the bike for them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
I must not have buttoned my coat; it's flapping wildly behind me as I pedal.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
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
Tesla has started volume production of the Cybercab, which lacks a steering wheel and pedals but the company hasn’t gotten the same regulatory approval as Zoox to begin offering rides to the public.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
A legal e-bike , externalmust have pedals and the motor is only there to provide assistance while the rider is pedalling.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Just a few days earlier, U.S. regulators proposed nixing rules requiring manual brake pedals in autonomous vehicles.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
Then Javier was off, far ahead of Moss enough that he had to slam his pedals down in order to catch up to him.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
Doncic smiled slyly toward the Lakers bench as he back pedaled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026
"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
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
Up the hill he ran, snatching Sheed’s discarded bike, and he pedaled toward town with no particular destination in mind, half blind from searing tears.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Ms. Nutthawaree hopped on the back and looped her arms around him as he pedalled hard toward what they hoped was safety.
From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2023
About 100 people have pedalled for a bone-jarring three hours in a charity penny farthing race.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2023
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
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
“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 was just delighted,” Wilder said of Bush on that day, pedaling through a brand-new track in Beijing that had not existed weeks earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Roy spun his bike around and started pedaling away.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
"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
"Because we know that she's going uphill, because we know that she's accelerating, she must have been pedalling," Sgt Raine added.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2025
Sitting on a bike and pedalling is something Simon van Velthooven has done for countless kilometres and hours during his cycling career.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2024
The Department for Transport is consulting on the proposals which would also allow e-bikes that don't require pedalling to travel much faster.
From BBC ● Feb. 29, 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.
