QUADRUPED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does quadruped mean? 

• QUADRUPED (noun)
  The noun QUADRUPED has 1 sense:

1. an animal especially a mammal having four limbs specialized for walking

  Familiarity information: QUADRUPED used as a noun is very rare.

• QUADRUPED (adjective)
  The adjective QUADRUPED has 1 sense:

1. having four feet

  Familiarity information: QUADRUPED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• QUADRUPED (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An animal especially a mammal having four limbs specialized for walking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("quadruped" is a kind of...):

tetrapod (a vertebrate animal having four feet or legs or leglike appendages)

Meronyms (parts of "quadruped"):

forefoot (a front foot of a quadruped)

hindfoot (a rear foot of a quadruped)

loin; lumbus (either side of the backbone between the hipbone and the ribs in humans as well as quadrupeds)

croup; croupe; hindquarters; rump (the part of an animal that corresponds to the human buttocks)

haunch (the loin and leg of a quadruped)

flank (the side between ribs and hipbone)

animal leg (the leg of an animal)

hind leg (the back limb of a quadruped)

foreleg (the forelimb of a quadruped)

Domain member category:

posteriority (the quality of being toward the back or toward the rear end)

Derivation:

quadrupedal (having four feet)

• QUADRUPED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having four feet

Synonyms:

four-footed; quadruped; quadrupedal

Antonym:

biped (having two feet)

 Context examples 

On its quadruped stance, an average specimen is believed to be 1.2 meters tall and its maximum height was likely to be reached two years after birth.

(Brazil and China scientists unearth pterosaur eggs with preserved embryos, Agência Brasil)

The foot of a quadruped animal, including canines, felines, mice, rats, and bears.

(Paw, NCI Thesaurus)

The time he had mentioned was more than out, and he lived in a little street near the Veterinary College at Camden Town, which was principally tenanted, as one of our clerks who lived in that direction informed me, by gentlemen students, who bought live donkeys, and made experiments on those quadrupeds in their private apartments.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I must freely confess, that the many virtues of those excellent quadrupeds, placed in opposite view to human corruptions, had so far opened my eyes and enlarged my understanding, that I began to view the actions and passions of man in a very different light, and to think the honour of my own kind not worth managing; which, besides, it was impossible for me to do, before a person of so acute a judgment as my master, who daily convinced me of a thousand faults in myself, whereof I had not the least perception before, and which, with us, would never be numbered even among human infirmities.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But I could have easily vindicated humankind from the imputation of singularity upon the last article, if there had been any swine in that country (as unluckily for me there were not), which, although it may be a sweeter quadruped than a Yahoo, cannot, I humbly conceive, in justice, pretend to more cleanliness; and so his honour himself must have owned, if he had seen their filthy way of feeding, and their custom of wallowing and sleeping in the mud.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet most quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field mice, with some others, too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects, which they offered, by many learned arguments, to evince that I could not possibly do.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)