Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having four feet; four-footed.
  • adjective Walking on four feet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Quadruped or four-footed; especially, going on all fours, or adapted or restricted to that mode of progression: as, the quadrupedal shape; quadrupedal locomotion.
  • noun A quadruped.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Having four feet; of or pertaining to a quadruped.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Walking on four feet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having four feet

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From quadruped + -al.

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Examples

  • Now we have the possibility that the chimps and gorillas may actually be on their way from a bipedal ancestor to a quadrupedal descendant!

    October 21st, 2009 m_francis 2009

  • Food for myself and the various quadrupedal residents of my house has been procured.

    Archive 2010-03-01 Kat Howard 2010

  • The sight of the armored, snorting, quadrupedal intruder, eyes bloodshot and nostrils flaring in the moonlight, gave even the belligerent Krasvin pause.

    The Lives of Felix Gunderson Sugu Althomsons 2010

  • Food for myself and the various quadrupedal residents of my house has been procured.

    For a certain value of getting things done Kat Howard 2010

  • They are often seen mocking the second group, which treats their dogs as quadrupedal, slobbery people.

    INSIDE OF A DOG ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ 2009

  • Chimpanzees, which are mostly quadrupedal, do not show these vertebral adaptations.

    Why pregnant women don’t fall over « Isegoria 2007

  • And of course, wherever you go out of doors, your quadrupedal pal can follow.

    Robert Rodi: Mad Cow by Moonlight: Mucca Pazza Enchants Evanston 2009

  • While still quadrupedal omnivores, the range of body types and sizes among dogs is extraordinary.

    INSIDE OF A DOG ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ 2009

  • Could anyone really believe that a quadrupedal animal would give birth to an animal with three limbs, one of which was a leg adapted for bipedalism, and then have to wait to fro the second leg to ‘evolve’ whatever that would mean in that context?

    Dmanisi in the news - The Panda's Thumb 2009

  • While still quadrupedal omnivores, the range of body types and sizes among dogs is extraordinary.

    INSIDE OF A DOG ALEXANDRA HOROWITZ 2009

Comments

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  • I know the word quadruped, but for some reason I never thought of it in an adjectival way. Usage:

    "Stephen... looked back to the boulder to estimate the orang-utang's ordinary unhurried quadrupedal speed over a moderate slope."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 229

    March 5, 2008