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stridulate

American  
[strij-uh-layt] / ˈstrɪdʒ əˌleɪt /

verb (used without object)

stridulated, stridulating
  1. to produce a shrill, grating sound, as a cricket does, by rubbing together certain parts of the body; shrill.


stridulate British  
/ ˈstrɪdjʊˌleɪt /

verb

  1. (intr) (of insects such as the cricket) to produce sounds by rubbing one part of the body against another

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of stridulate

First recorded in 1830–40; back formation from stridulation; see stridulous, -ate 1, -ion


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:

Like crickets and katydids, they can stridulate by rubbing its body parts together to attract a mate or ward off potential predators.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 26, 2013

Beetles stridulate under various emotions, in the same manner as birds use their voices for many purposes besides singing to their mates.

From The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin

Many insects stridulate by rubbing together specially modified parts of their hard integuments.

From The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin

The insects which employ the fourth method also stridulate during night.

From The Scrap Book, Volume 1, No. 6 August 1906 by Various

Many grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing the hind legs across strong nervures on the fore wings.

From The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Section S by Project Gutenberg

Decrepit, senile, and miserable, Tithonus eventually shrank into a cicada who stridulated ceaselessly, calling out for release.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 27, 2017

The insects buzzed, whined, hummed, stridulated and droned as the air grew warmer in the sunset.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

From Vera Cruz to Jalapa, more than 100 miles, were "hordes" of grasshoppers, gaily munching crops, stopping trains and stridulating with much gusto.

From Time Magazine Archive

Yet, as I have said, if a public speaker may fidget with his back legs while he is stridulating, why not a public grasshopper?

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, July 21, 1920 by Sir Owen Seaman

For hours that and the prolonged stridulating of the crickets were the only sounds.

From A Man's Woman by Frank Norris

In a large number 669 of beetles of different families, stridulating areas occur on various segments of the abdomen, and are scraped by the elytra.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 6 "Cockaigne" to "Columbus, Christopher" by Various

In the females, however, of all three species of Oryctes, when the abdomen of a softened specimen is pushed backwards and forwards, a slight grating or stridulating sound can be produced.

From The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. I by Charles Darwin

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