v. [f. mod.L. strīdulāt-, strīdulāre, f. L. strīdul-us: see STRIDULOUS.] intr. To make a harsh, grating, shrill noise: said spec. of certain insects.

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1838.  trans. Goureau, in Entom. Mag., V. 98. I am inclined to believe these insects mute,… because I have never heard them stridulate.

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1854.  Badham, Halieut., 101. Women are obliged to stridulate louder at each other as the wind rises and threatens to drown their voices.

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1871.  Darwin, Desc. Man, x. (1874), 303. Some species stridulate very loudly.

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1895.  Natural Sci., Jan., 49. The spider stridulates to warn animals that would prey upon it of its deadly nature.

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  b.  Path. (See quot.)

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1898.  Syd. Soc. Lex., Stridulate, to suffer from stridor.

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  Hence Stridulating vbl. sb. and ppl. a.

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1861–3.  Le Conte, Classif. Coleoptera N. Amer., I. Introd. p. xx. Stridulating organs … exist in various families.

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1871.  Darwin, Desc. Man, ix. (1874), 273. The males of several species of Theridion have the power of making a stridulating sound.

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1880.  A. H. Swinton, Insect Variety, 167. The Stridulating Locust (Pachytylus stridulus).

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