biped
noun/ˈbaɪpɛd/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin bipēs, bipedis. Alternatively analyzable as bi- + -ped.
1
An animal, being, or construction that goes about on two feet (or two legs).
- This knave, […] shoes horses better than e'er a man betwixt us and Iceland; and so he gives up his practice on the bipeds, the two-legged and unfledged species, called mankind, and betakes him entirely to shoeing of horses.1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 235:
- He was badgered in that witness-box for an hour. By a distracting repetition of cross-examination he was forced to confess that he had seen and spoken to a human biped in broad daylight, yet could not recollect one singularity to distinguish this phantom from the flat mass of humanity.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 89:
1 more example
- Luján, or, rather, the biped which used to be Luján, walks right up to him. He is a little shorter than Wheeler, but much heavier-set. Rooted to the spot, not thinking clearly, Wheeler holds his violin up, as if this will shield him. The conductor takes the instrument from his unresisting hands and breaks its neck underfoot, perfunctorily, as if crushing a box for recycling.2019 April 10, qntm, “CASE HATE RED”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 138:
- Derived terms
- bipedal, bipedism, featherless biped