velocipede
Americannoun
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a vehicle, usually having two or three wheels, that is propelled by the rider.
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an early kind of bicycle or tricycle.
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a light, three-wheeled, pedal-driven vehicle for railway inspection, used for carrying one person on a railroad track.
noun
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an early form of bicycle propelled by pushing along the ground with the feet
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any early form of bicycle or tricycle
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of velocipede
1810–20; < French vélocipède bicycle, equivalent to véloci- (< Latin, stem of vēlōx quick) + -pède -ped
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.
He sped around town on an early bicycle called a velocipede.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 15, 2026
Bike-adjacent inventions that roll atop train tracks have been known by many different names — handcar, draisine, kalamazoo and velocipede are just a few — since they first cropped up around the 1860s.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2023
And between two wooden luggage carts from the late 1800s sits a railway velocipede, a three-wheeled handcar that was operated by pedals.
From Washington Times • Nov. 15, 2020
Courtesy of the enormous front wheel, it was a racing machine - twice as fast as a velocipede.
From BBC • Apr. 29, 2019
“First we must determine: Was the velocipede lost, abandoned, or stolen? In my view it makes all the difference. For if it was lost or abandoned, then I agree with Ashton. Finders keepers.”
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
