sb. (a.) Also 7–8 -pede. [ad. L. quadrupēs, -ped-is, four-footed, a four-footed beast, f. quadru- QUADRU- + pēs foot.]
1. An animal that has four feet. (Usually confined to mammals, and excluding four-footed reptiles.)
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 104. Quadrupedes, Volatills and Fishes … have distinct and prominent organs of motion, legs, wings, and fins.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 2. The knees or flexure of his fore-legs forwards (as in most quadrupeds).
1728. Morgan, Algiers, I. ii. 21. Quadrupedes of the Serpentine Breed.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), II. 105. The arms of men but very little resemble the fore feet of quadrupedes.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 25. In quadrupeds, the ear is nearly as large in the young as in the full grown animal.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 123. The fishes, upon which nearly all the aquatic quadrupeds almost entirely subsist.
Comb. 1870. Lubbock, Orig. Civilis., vi. (1875), 258. If … we compare … serpent worship with quadruped-worship … we shall find that it has no exceptionally wide area.
b. Applied spec. to the horse: cf. QUAD sb.4
1660. Bond, Scut. Reg., 7. Even I … can hardly restrain the unbridled fierceness of the Quadrupedes.
1755. Young, Centaur, vi. Wks. 1757, IV. 253. Others, with Swift … look on the noble quadrupede as superior to the man.
1868. G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 220. The long straggling line of soldiers, six thousand and odd, with their quadrupeds and baggage.
2. attrib. or as adj. Four-footed.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind, I. xvi. § 2 (1). The cockney, travelling into the country, is surprised at many actions of the quadruped and winged animals.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 622. Learn we might, if not too proud to stoop To quadruped instructors.
1834. Caunter, Orient. Ann., vi. 65. This herd of quadruped giants was only at a short distance from us.
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., 68. The Mammalia are for the most part quadruped.
b. Belonging to connected with, or appropriate to four-footed animals.
a. 1835. McCulloch, Attributes (1843), II. 21. The Kangaroo labours under an invention which is an infringement upon the general simple and effectual one for quadruped motion.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Montaigne, Wks. (Bohn), I. 346. I do not press the scepticism of the materialist. I know the quadruped opinion will not prevail.
3. A verse of four feet. rare–1.
1800. W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem., I. 328. The French … make no difference between an anapaesiic quadruped and a six-foot iambic.
Hence (or directly from stem of L. quadrupēs) Quadrupedan, † Quadrupeded, † Quadrupedial, † -pedian, Quadrupedic, Quadrupedical adjs. = QUADRUPEDAL. Quadrupedism, the fact of being a quadruped. Quadrupedous a., quadrupedal (Bailey, Vol. II. 1731).
1806. Edin. Rev., IX. 37. The human character may undergo strange mutations from *quadrupedan sympathy.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xvi. (1870), 272. So great murren or syckenes to any *quadrypedyd beste.
1709. Brit. Apollo, II. No. 64. 2/2. Quadrupeded Brutes.
1700. Moxon, Math. Dict., 136. *Quadrupedial Signs.
1647. App. Almanak for 1386, 74. Aries, Taurus, Leo, Sagittarius, and Capricorn, are called bestial or *quadrupedian signes, having representation of four-footed creatures.
1888. Daily News, 26 June, 9/1. Among the roses, flourish the cabbages for the episcopal bacon which meanwhile roams, *quadrupedic, among the potato beds.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 68. Devoured or mutilated by (apparently) some hungry *quadrupedical animal.
1834–43. Southey, Doctor, cxcix. (1862), 530. Among the Mahometans also, *quadrupedism is not considered an obstacle to a certain kind of canonisation.
