| 释义 |
▪ I. pedal, n.|ˈpɛdəl|
[app. a. F. pedale, used by Rabelais in the sense ‘feet’ or ‘trick with the feet’, by Oudinot 1642, of the pedals of the organ, ad. It. pedale a foot, foot-stool, footstalk, stock of a tree, etc. (Florio), pedale a'organo ‘the low key of organs’ (Baretti); f. L. pedāl-is adj.: see next. The English use of the word by Cotgrave in 1611 before this sense is recorded in Fr. is notable.]
1. A lever worked by the foot, in various musical instruments, and with various functions.
a. In the organ: (a) Each of the (wooden) keys played upon by the feet, resembling those of the manuals in form and arrangement, but much larger, together consitituting the pedal keyboard or pedal-board, and usually operating upon a separate set of pipes of bass tone (pedal-pipes) forming the pedal organ (see organ n.1 2 d). (b) A foot-lever for drawing a number of stops out or in at once (combination-pedal or composition-pedal). (c) The foot-lever by which the swell-box is opened and shut (swell-pedal). (d) Any one of various foot levers occasionally used, e.g. for coupling two keyboards. (e) Short for pedal organ or keyboard.
1611Cotgr., Basses marches, pedalls; the low keyes of some Organs to be touched with the feet. 1694Motteux Rabelais v. xx. (1737) 88 The Pedals of Turbith, and the Clavier..of Scammony. 1776Sir J. Hawkins Hist. Mus. IV. i. 150 The German organs have also Keys for the feet called Pedals. 1829Specif. Organ, St. James's, Bermondsey in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 599 Three Composition Pedals to Great,..Pedal to couple Swell to Great. 1863J. R. Green Lett. (1901) 121 A. is learning the organ..and is already great in the pedals. 1880E. J. Hopkins in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 606 The ‘Sforzando coupler’ is a movement worked by a pedal, by the aid of which the Great Organ is suddenly attached to the Swell. It reinforces the strength of the Swell to a far greater extent than by the ‘crescendo’ pedal... Other subsidiary pedals are occasionally introduced.
b. In the pianoforte, etc.: (a) A foot-lever for raising the dampers from the strings, thus sustaining the tone and rendering it fuller (damper pedal, often loosely called loud pedal or forte pedal). (b) One for softening the tone (soft pedal or piano pedal), either by shifting the hammers so as to strike only one or two strings instead of three for each note, or by diminishing their length of blow, or by interposing a strip of cloth between them and the strings (celeste pedal); see also soft pedal. (c) Any one of various others occasionally used; e.g. the sustaining-pedal for sustaining a particular group of notes after they are struck; and several in late harpsichords and early pianofortes for modifying the tone, or for special effects. (d) Each of the keys of a pedal-board like that of an organ, sometimes attached to a pianoforte or harpsichord.
1840Penny Cycl. XVIII. 141 In foreign piano-fortes we find many pedals, but in the English we have scarcely ever more than two—one for piano effects, and the other for forte. Ibid., Fig. 5...h, Damper pedal lifter. 1861Wynter Soc. Bees 431 There was something..so innocent in her bearing, that you instinctively put down the soft pedal in your voice when addressing her. 1880A. J. Hipkins in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 678 J. S. Bach had a harpsichord with two rows of keys and pedals.
c. In the harp: Each of a set of seven foot-levers by which the pitch of the notes may be raised either one or two semitones by stopping the strings at different points, thus enabling the performer to play in any key.
1771Burney Pres. St. Music (1775) I. 59 note, This method of producing the half-tones on the harp, by pedals, was invented at Brussels, about fifteen years ago, by M. Simon. 1880A. J. Hipkins in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 683 In the Harp the pedals are not keys..but it is their province to alter the pitch in two gradations of a semitone each.
d. Sometimes applied to the treadles by which the bellows are worked in a harmonium or reed-organ.
1882Ogilvie s.v., On the harmonium and parlour-organ, the pedal works the bellows.
2. a. A lever worked by the foot in various machines or mechanical contrivances; a treadle: esp. in a bicycle or tricycle.
1789E. Darwin Bot Gard. ii. (1791) 56 Inventress of the woof, fair Lina flings The flying shuttle through the dancing strings:.. Quick beat the reeds, the pedals fall and rise. 1869Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 477 The Pedals or stirrups [of a bicycle] are made of various shapes. 1885C. G. W. Lock Workshop Receipts Ser. iv. 288/1 When the pedal is depressed, the rod is raised. 1888J. & E. R. Pennell Sent. Journ. 182 Every turn of the pedals I felt must be the last. 1897Westm. Gaz. 20 Aug. 8/1 Von Baader first constructed a velocipede with pedals in 1820.
b. spec. Such a lever forming one of the controls in a motor vehicle; often attrib.
1902W. W. Beaumont in A. C. Harmsworth et al. Motors x. 219 The friction of the band on the drum..pulls on the band in the same direction as the pedal. Ibid. 220 A good form of brake is that..in which the pull on the rod F from pedal E pulls the arm D. 1909Westm. Gaz. 4 Feb. 4/2 It seems to me that to dismantle the universal joint and pedal-gear means taking them out. 1926Scribner's Mag. Aug. 153/1 The girl was satiated with speed. She relaxed the pressure of her foot on the pedal, and leaned back in her seat. ‘Some car!’ she said. 1929Times 5 Nov. 7/5 The clutch pedal-shaft bearings have grease valves. 1962Which? Car Suppl. Oct. 128/2 Most drivers liked the pedal controls in the VW 1500. Ibid. 129/1 The pedal control layouts..were generally liked. 1974Country Life 21 Mar. 659/2 Pedals are nicely positioned for heel and toe driving. 1976‘E. McBain’ Guns (1977) vi. 139 Great day for a robbery... Your driver hit the gas pedal and off you went.
†3. A footstalk, pedicel. Obs. rare.
1660Sharrock Vegetables 33 The best generall token of maturity is its loosness from the pedall by which it is joined to the stock. Ibid. 117 To serve as a foundation to the pedal of the blossom.
4. Mus.
a. A note (regularly either tonic or dominant) sustained (or reiterated) in one part, usually in the bass, through a succession of harmonies some of which are independent of it; in organ-music usually sustained by holding down a pedal. Also transf.
Also called pedal-point (see 7) or organ-point. double pedal: two notes (regularly tonic and dominant) so sustained simultaneously. inverted pedal: a note so sustained in any other part than the bass, esp. in the highest part.
1854tr. Cherubini's Counterpoint 66 The pedal is a note prolonged and sustained during several bars. 1856Mrs. C. Clarke tr. Berlioz' Instrument. 5 The bass string can cross an upper open string..while the open string remains as a pedal. 1869Ouseley Counterp. xxii. 177 Towards the end of a fugue it is usual to place a dominant pedal. 1892G. B. Shaw Let. 21 Apr. (1965) I. 337 Her voice has become much more powerful—quite Hyde Parkian in its pedal notes. 1905Daily Chron. 25 Sept. 6/4 He did all that the pedal-notes of his magnificent voice could do toward realising..a character not wholly suited to his temperament.
b. On some brass and wind instruments, = fundamental n. 2; usu. attrib., as pedal note, pedal tone.
1856M. C. Clarke tr. Berlioz's Treat. Mod. Instrumentation 153/2 All trombones..possess..three notes; which are..called pedals... Supposing that the bass trombone possesses the first only of these pedal notes..it would still be of great value for certain effects. Ibid. 154/1 The vibrations of the pedal notes are slow, and require much wind. 1938Oxf. Compan. Mus. 953/2 The actual fundamental notes are not so easy to produce [on a trombone] as the harmonics above them; they are spoken of as Pedal Notes— possibly because they are considered to be useful for the holding of a ‘pedal’, in the sense in which the word is used in the terminology of harmony.., or else, as Berlioz suggests, from their resemblance to the low pedal notes of an organ. 1944W. Apel Harvard Dict. Mus. 340/1 Owing to the narrow bore..the lowest tone of this series (pedal tone) is practically unobtainable. Ibid. 817/1 Another term for the fundamental tone is pedal tone... A distinction is made between whole-tube instruments..producing the pedal tone, and half-tube instruments. 1954Grove's Dict. Mus. (ed. 5) VI. 608/1 These prime notes, the lowest proper tones of the instrument,..are known as pedal notes... A pedal note always stands for the first note or No. 1 in the harmonic series. On trumpets and some other instruments the pedal notes are practically impossible. 1959Collins Mus. Encycl. 491/2 Pedal,..the fundamental (or first note of the harmonic series) on a brass instrument. A few of these notes can be produced with a slack lip on the trombone, the tuba and the B♭ section of the double horn. 1961C. W. Monk in A. Baines Mus. Instruments xi. 283 This gives E as the bottom note of the trombone's continuous scale, leaving a gap down to the less-used fundamental or ‘pedal’ notes from the first-position B′♭ downwards.
5. Geom. A curve or surface which is the locus of the feet of the perpendiculars let fall from a fixed point (the pedal origin or pedal pole) upon the tangents to a given curve or surface.
negative pedal: that curve or surface of which a given one is the pedal. oblique pedal: the locus of the feet of lines drawn from a fixed point to the tangents at a constant angle with them other than a right angle. second pedal: the pedal of the pedal (of a curve or surface); so third pedal, etc. (the pedal itself in relation to these is the first pedal).
1863Cayley Coll. Math. Papers V. 114 If rays proceeding from the point S are reflected at the given curve, then the epicycloid (or pedal) in question is the secondary caustic. 1873B. Williamson Diff. Calc. (ed. 2) §183 If perpendiculars be drawn to the tangents to the pedal, we get a new curve called the second pedal of the original: and so on. With respect to its pedal, the original curve is styled the first negative pedal, etc. 1885A. G. Greenhill Diff. Calc. (1886) 24 The locus..is called the pedal of the curve with respect to O, and O is called the pole of the pedal.
6. Humorously or affectedly used for ‘foot’.
1849H. Melville Mardi II. xliv. 204 To cool his heated pedals, he established..stopping-places. 1894Outing (U.S.) XXIII. 884/2 [At Shanghai] I did see the celebrated shrunk or dwarfed feet... The first two or three pairs of these stunted pedals that I noticed excited my pity.
7. attrib. and Comb. Of, belonging to, connected with, worked by, having, or constituting a pedal or pedals (in sense 1 or 2), as pedal action, pedal-bike, pedal clavier, pedal coupler († pedal copula), pedal cycle, pedal cyclist, pedal harp, pedal key, pedal keyboard, pedal mechanism, pedal pallet, pedal pipe, pedal rod, pedal soundboard, pedal stop, pedal tracker, pedal work; pedal-operated adj.; played upon the pedals of an organ, or constituting or involving a pedal (in sense 4), as pedal bass, pedal note, pedal passage; in Geom. relating to a pedal curve or surface (see sense 5 above and pedal a.1 3); pedal bin, a rubbish bin with a lid which is opened by means of a pedal; pedal-board (see 1 a); pedal boat, a boat, usu. a pleasure boat, propelled by means of pedals; also pedal-driven boat; pedal car, a car, usu. a child's toy, propelled by means of pedals; pedal-check, a device for preventing the pedals of an organ from being pressed down; pedal clarinet (or clarionet), a clarinet sounding an octave below the bass clarinet; pedal-craft, pedal boats; pedal entry, in organ music, a point where a theme or figure is introduced on the pedal stops; also transf. and fig.; pedal-piano, a pianoforte fitted with a pedal-board like that of an organ; pedal point = sense 4 above; also fig.; pedal power [cf. power n.1 4 f], a catch-phrase for the use or advocacy of bicycling as a means of transport; pedal pusher, a cyclist; hence in pl. (orig. U.S.), a type of girls' or women's trousers, reaching only just below the knee, suitable for wearing when cycling; also (with hyphen) attrib.; pedal steel guitar, an electric guitar fixed on a stand and connected to pedals by which the tension of the strings can be altered to produce glissando effects; also pedal guitar, pedal steel; pedal wireless, a small radio transceiver, with a generator powered by a foot-pedal, providing a means of communication in the Australian out-back; also pedal radio, pedal set.
1880*Pedal bass [see pedal passage below].
1974‘A. Gilbert’ Nice Little Killing vi. 83 I've been travelling around on a *pedal-bike.
1951Catal. of Exhibits, South Bank Exhib., Festival of Britain 52/1 ‘Binette’ *pedal bin. Ibid. 124/1 Pedal bin for soiled napkins. 1958Engineering 7 Mar. 320/2 Polythene is used widely: for pedal bins, trug baskets,..and watering cans. 1966N. Freeling Dresden Green i. 14 He..picked up his pedal bin (emptied that and every morning into one of the big dustbins). 1977J. Heald Just Desserts i. 14 An empty magnum of Château Waitrose by the pedal bin in the kitchen.
1951Go Apr.–May There are little safe *pedal-boats for venturing on to the lake. 1958New Yorker 13 Sept. 130/3 (Advt.), The Yacht club with pedal boats, water skiing, skin diving. 1959Encounter Oct. 17/2 The animated statue who looks after the pedal-boats.
1951Catal. of Exhibits, South Bank Exhib., Festival of Britain 126/2 *Pedalcar, ‘Austin 40’. 1968Radio Times 28 Nov. 6 A pedal car, a doll's pram, a trike or a bike. 1973Guardian 11 June 6 The event for Formula One pedal cars was part of the RAC L-Driver of the Year finals.
1892Orchestral Times Jan. 6/2 Messrs. F. Besson & Co.'s inventive faculty seems inexhaustible... That eminent firm has recently given us..the ‘*Pedal’ Clarionet (contra-bass clarionet). Ibid. 7/2 The ‘Pedal’ Clarionet is the deepest-voiced instrument ever constructed for orchestral use... The fingering of the pedal clarionet is similar to the ordinary clarionet. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXI. 36/2 Pedal clarinet, a contrabass instrument invented in 1891 by M. F. Besson to complete the quartet of clarinets..; it is constructed on practically the same principles as the clarinet, and consists of a tube 10 ft. long..doubled up twice upon itself. 1959Collins Mus. Encycl. 491/2 Pedal Clarinet, another name for the Contrabass Clarinet. 1961J. A. MacGillivray in A. Baines Mus. Instruments x. 260 Of those [sc. contrabass clarinets] in B♭, an octave below the bass clarinet, Fontaine-Besson's ‘Pedal clarinet’ was the first to arouse much interest. 1966Listener 27 Oct. 632/2 He includes such rare instruments as..pedal-clarinet.
1852Seidel Organ 70 The *pedal-copula is a contrivance by which..the manual may be joined or coupled to the pedale.
1834in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 600 Manual and *Pedal couplers. Radiating Pedal⁓board.
1957G. Bellairs Death in High Provence ix. 105 Families..sporting on the beaches, little *pedal-craft skimming across the water.
1937R. F. Broad Motor Driving made Easy (ed. 6) vii. 94 A moment ago we used the word ‘cyclist’. By this term is generally understood the *pedal-cycle user. 1963Times 5 Mar. 6/3 Motor cycle casualties fell by 7,632..and pedal-cycle casualties by 3,974. 1973J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 69 Sykes arrived in a Cortina. The postman arrived with a pedal cycle—pushing it. 1974Times 8 Feb. 15 The local authority provides a pedal cycle speedway track.
1931Highway Code 12 Certain of the rules for drivers of motor vehicles..also apply..to *pedal cyclists. 1974L. Lamb Man in Mist vii. 43 The early evening shoal of pedal cyclists.
1898Cycling 6 The *pedal dismount..is effected by waiting till the left pedal is at its lowest and throwing the right leg over the saddle and back wheel.
1927Sunday Express 14 Aug. 1 Mr. E. P. Tierney..collapsed yesterday when attempting to carry out a test in his 12-foot *pedal-driven boat Carrie, with which he had planned to cross the Atlantic.
1928Auden in Oxf. Poetry 2 We sang Our descant until love one day, That *pedal-entry in the fugue Roared in, swept soul and knees away. 1932― Orators i. 30 The bowel tremors at the pedal-entry.
1970A. Bellow Illustr. Hist. Guitar vii. 154 An even more unusual guitar, known as a ‘*pedal guitar’, was constructed by Eduard Bayer.
1784E. Jones Mus. Rel. Welsh Bards (1794) 105 Sometimes the *Pedal Harp is called the German Harp.
1852Seidel Organ 33 The *pedal-keys are generally made of oak.
1896Godey's Mag. Apr. 369/2 A bicycle of peculiar *pedal-mechanism.
1880*Pedal note [see pedal point below].
1908Westm. Gaz. 20 Oct. 4/3 A similar powered car..with patent *pedal-operated plate clutch. Ibid. 10 Dec. 4/2 (heading) Pedal-operated car. 1936Discovery July 224/2 A pedal-operated volume-control [on an electronic piano]. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 5 Jan. 95/2 This pedal-operated device counteracts wheel⁓spin. 1964W. L. Goodman Hist. Woodworking Tools 153 Holding his work in a vertical, pedal-operated vice or ‘horse’.
1829in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 599 *Pedal Organ... Double Pedal Pipes.
1880F. Corder in Grove Dict. Mus. 681 The following passage..is so far a *pedal passage... Songs and short pieces have been occasionally written entirely on a Pedal bass.
1829*Pedal pipe [see pedal organ above].
1852J. Hullah Gram. Musical Harmony xxvii. 71 From a very obvious and effective mode of using these (foot) keys has arisen the term *pedal point, by which is understood a note maintained during several successive changes of chords, or passages of melody. 1880F. Corder in Grove Dict. Mus. II. 678 Pedal point,..is the sustaining of a note by one part while the other parts proceed in independent harmony... The sustained, or pedal note, when first sounded or finally quitted, must form part of the harmony. 1974Publishers Weekly 16 Dec. 49/1 These tales are generally of high standard... But the insistent pedal point theme, the overwhelming atmosphere of misery.., makes this one to be taken in small doses. 1977New Yorker 16 May 139/1 Hindemith's Requiem opens with a slow instrumental prelude, a four-note tolling ostinato over a pedal point.
1974Times 5 Mar. (Europa Suppl.) p. vi/1 In the United States the bicycle is in full boom to such an extent that humorists talk of *pedal power. 1978Watson & Gray Penguin Bk. Bicycle i. 38 Pedal power..lends itself quite naturally to the need felt by many people for..healthy exercise. 1985Oxford Jrnl. 11 July (Summer Focus) 3/2 Students..find it easier to tour the area using pedal power by hiring a cycle from one of the specialist shops.
1934M. H. Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang xvii. 262 *Pedal pusher,—a bicycle rider, especially in a race. 1942[see pedaller]. 1944Life 28 Aug. 65/2 When college girls took to riding bicycles in slacks, they first rolled up one trouser leg, then rolled up both. This..has now produced a trim variety of long shorts, called ‘pedal pushers’. 1945Liberty 1 Sept. 68 Miss McCardell..borrowed little-boy pants for ‘pedal-pushers’, the knee length shorts. 1957H. Roosenburg Walls came tumbling Down vii. 189 His trousers had shrunk to the size of pedal-pushers. 1959M. Steen Tower i. vii. 92 A girl in..blue pedal-pusher jeans. 1960S. Pleydell Festival for Gilbert i. 10 Black pedal-pusher trousers. 1971Pedal-pusher [see happi-coat].
1959Manch. Guardian 5 Aug. 5/4 All the aeroplane, the *pedal-radio..and, latterly, the road-train have done to break down the isolation of life in inland central Australia.
1944Living off Land iv. 77 Cars, trucks, aircraft, and radio *pedal-sets, have put an end to the old era of isolation. 1949H. M. Madeley Australia xxxiv. 138 These pedal sets are in mining camps, in lonely houses, in police stations, in nursing homes.
1869Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 475 Ornamental caps to keep the *pedal-stays [of a bicycle] firmly in their places.
1976Gramophone Aug. 351/3 Paul Cotton..and Rusty Young (*pedal steel, dobro, mandolin etc.) excel instrumentally. 1977Zigzag Mar. 30/1 This coupled with Mike Utley's delicate piano and Al Perkins' unobtrusive pedal steel makes the track one of the standout cuts on the first side.
1969Listener 20 Mar. 398/3 It features another splendid electronic invention, the *pedal steel guitar which..specialises in vertiginous slides and swoops. 1969Rolling Stone 28 June 17/1 Today's added use of drums, pedal steel guitar,..even harpsichord have [sic] made some arrangements far more complete.
1940Bayne & Lazarus Austral. Community ii. 76 Messages are sent out and received by means of the *pedal wireless or transceiver (invented by the Australian Inland Mission and now much improved). 1944F. Clune Red Heart 7 The combination of pedal-wireless sets, to call the doctor, and of aeroplanes, to bring him to the patient, is a triumph of modern times. 1963A. Lubbock Austral. Roundabout 25 The hundreds of transceiver or pedal-wireless sets.
1944R. Lehmann Ballad & Source 96, I was already practising my technique for Bicyclists' Dashing Hill—a piece of frantic momentum-gathering *pedal work.
▪ II. pedal, a.1|ˈpɛdəl, ˈpiːdəl|
[ad. L. pedāl-is of or pertaining to the foot, of the size or dimension of a foot, f. pēs, ped-em foot: see -al1. (The pronunciation (ˈpiːdəl) is restricted to sense 1, 1 b.)]
1. Of, pertaining to, or connected with the foot or feet.
a. gen. rare.
1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. vi. (1635) 150 The Nadir is directly vnder our foote, and therefore may be called the Pedall point. 1801Strutt Sports & Past. ii. ii. 71 Places appropriated to pedal races. 1883Childers Sp. Ho. Comm. 10 May, A bicycle would be held to be propelled by..pedal power.
b. Anat. and Zool.: usually in reference to the ‘foot’ or podium of a mollusc. pedal bone, the lowest phalangeal bone in a horse's foot; = coffin-bone (coffin n. 13).
1851–6Woodward Mollusca 187 Mouth small, proboscidiform, retractile into the pedal notch. 1866Tate Brit. Mollusks ii. 18 The pedal muscles retract the foot. 1881Encycl. Brit. XII. 178/1 A powerful tendon..passes down over the..phalanges, to be inserted mainly into the upper edge of the anterior surface of the last phalanx or pedal bone. 1920F. T. Barton Horse xiii. 107 Two tendons pass down the back of the foot,..the former being attached to the lower surface of the pedal-bone. 1973Edwards & Geddes Compl. Bk. Horse iii. iii. 113/1 The end bone of the leg is the pedal bone..which corresponds to the last bone in the second finger of man. Ibid., The pedal bone is roughly the shape of the foot and is of pumice-like consistency.
†2. Of the length or measure of a foot. rare.
1656in Blount Glossogr. 1658in Phillips.
3. Geom. Relating to the feet of perpendiculars; of or pertaining to the pedal of a curve or surface.
pedal curve or pedal surface = pedal n. 5. pedal line, the line through the feet of the perpendiculars on the sides of a triangle from any point on the circumscribed circle. pedal origin, pedal pole: see pedal n. 5.
1863Cayley Coll. Math. Papers V. 113 If the given curve be a parabola, then the locus or pedal curve is a curve of the third order. 1873B. Williamson Diff. Calc. (ed. 2) §184 The tangent at any point on the pedal locus. 1877― Int. Calc. (ed. 2) §144 In this case, the pedal area is a minimum... The distance between the pedal origins.
4. Mus. That is, or relates to, a pedal or pedals: see pedal n. 1, 4, 7.
▪ III. pedal, a.2|ˈpɛdəl|
[ad. It. pedale: see pedal n.]
Applied to the lower and thicker part of a kind of straw grown in Italy for plaiting; ellipt., a special plait made from this straw, usually having five or seven strands. (Hence five- or seven-ends pedal.)
1887Encycl. Brit. XXII. 593/2 The straw of Tuscany, specially grown for plaiting, is distinguished into three qualities,—..from the third quality, Santa Fioro, only ‘Tuscan pedals’ and braids are plaited. 1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 894 Fine pedal ‘Homburg’... Fine pedal straw. 1923Daily Mail 7 Feb. 1 (Advt.), Italian pedal straw hats... These hats are very soft and pliable, made of seven ends pedal. 1930Times 13 Mar. 11/6 Fine pedal straw has returned, and is seen in a brimmed hat.., with the new sweeping line. 1962A. Southern Millinery ii. 30 The fancy band straws and pedal come into this [sc. real Italian straws] group, the latter being dyed into fashion shades.
▪ IV. pedal, v.|ˈpɛdəl|
[f. pedal n.]
intr. a. To play upon the pedals of an organ, a pianoforte, or similar instrument. Also trans., to use the pedals in playing (a passage of music, etc.); to use the pedals of. b. To work the pedals of a bicycle, etc. so as to propel it; also trans. with the bicycle, etc. as object. Also in refl., pass., and fig. uses.
1866Mod. [To pedal on the organ is remembered]. 1888Art Jrnl. LI. 125/2 There the travellers ceased to pedal [on a bicycle]. 1888P. Furnivall Phys. Training 7 One of the difficulties of pedalling at a high speed. 1889Cent. Dict. s.v., Pedal..v.i.,..to work a pedal; use the pedals, as of a piano, organ, bicycle, etc. 1892Harper's Weekly Mag. 9 July 667/3 To do what?.. Pedal a bicycle or swing a tennis racket? 1896Queen 25 Jan. 169/2 If young ladies are to be allowed to pedal themselves about in..London, then it will certainly be necessary to provide..some proper escort. 1909, etc. [see pedalling vbl. n.]. 1922S. Grew Art of Player-Piano iv. 23 We correct the first condition..by ceasing to pedal for a moment or two. Ibid. xviii. 112 An attempt..to ‘pedal’ the piece in the way it is ‘fingered’ for the pianist. 1922Joyce Ulysses 259 Upholding the lid he..gazed..at the oblique triple (piano!) wires. He pressed.., soft pedalling a triple of keys. 1924Galsworthy White Monkey ii. xi. 208 ‘Well,’ said Michael, ‘I think we shall pedal through yet.’ 1938F. C. Rauser tr. Leimer & Gieseking's Rhythmics vii. 48 All of Beethoven's Sonatas can be properly pedalled by means of the time-tread. 1954T. A. Johnson Princ. Pianoforte Pedalling 10 It is sometimes permissible to pedal certain staccato passages. 1955G. Greene Quiet American iv. ii. 243, I found a trishaw and was pedalled home. 1961C. Clutton in A. Baines Mus. Instruments v. 93 John Field..was the first person to develop the use of the sustaining pedal as part of his technique, and, like Chopin, he pedalled after the note. 1973D. May Laughter in Djakarta viii. 132 A betjak came along the street, pedalled by a very young smooth-faced boy. 1975H. Ferguson Keyboard Interpretation ix. 66 The passage must be pedaled thus. 1977Daily Express 29 Jan. 35/2 Derek Underwood pedalling slowly backwards before clutching it in his hands to send Gavaskar miserably away to an accompaniment of boos and jeers from the 40,000 crowd. 1978Gramophone July 231/1 The ending of ‘Ende vom Lied’..is deeply impressive—I only wish he had not pedalled. |