stridulate
verbUK /ˈstɹɪdjʊleɪt/
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”))
1
To make a high-pitched chirping, grating, hissing, or squeaking sound, as male crickets and grasshoppers do, by rubbing certain body parts together.
- A window was open, and the crickets were stridulating at an ominous speed in the black motionless foliage.1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 191:
- The crickets stridulated their everlasting monotonous meaningful note.1984, John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick, page 55:
- Derived terms
- stridulator
- Related terms
- stridulation, stridulous