stridulate

English

Etymology

Back-formation from stridulation. (From earlier term stridulous; from Latin strīdulus (“giving a shrill sound, creaking”), from strīdō (“utter a shrill or harsh sound; creak, shriek, grate, hiss”))

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈstɹɪdjʊleɪt/

Verb

stridulate (third-person singular simple present stridulates, present participle stridulating, simple past and past participle stridulated)

1. (intransitive) To make a high-pitched chirping, grating, hissing, or squeaking sound, as male crickets and grasshoppers do, by rubbing certain body parts together.

   Synonyms: chirp, chirr

   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 191:

     A window was open, and the crickets were stridulating at an ominous speed in the black motionless foliage.

   • 1984, John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick, page 55:

     The crickets stridulated their everlasting monotonous meaningful note.

Related terms

• stridulation
• stridulous

 

Translations

to make a noise by rubbing body parts as do crickets

• Bulgarian: цвърча (bg) (cvǎrča)
• Finnish: sirittää (fi)
• French: striduler (fr)
• Italian: stridulare
• Maori: kitā
• Spanish: estridular (es)

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

stridulate

1. inflection of stridulare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

stridulate f pl

1. feminine plural of stridulato