stridulate

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”))

• (UK) IPA^(key): /stɹɪdjʊˈleɪʃ(ə)n/

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.
   • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin 2011, p. 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, p55

     The crickets stridulated their everlasting monotonous meaningful note.

• chirp

• stridulation
• stridulous

stridulate

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

stridulate

1. feminine singular of the past participle of stridulare