adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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rhymes with -ɪkjʊlə(ɹ)
1
adj
Meaning 1
Of or relating to lice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
Examples
1820, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, letter to Hartley Coleridge in H. J. Jackson (ed.), Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Selected Letters, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987, p. 226, We proceed—(at a tortoise or pedicular Crawl, you will say—but believe me, dear Boy! there is no other way of attaining a clear and productive Insight [...] [)]
1860, Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Currents and Counter-currents in Medical Science” in Medical Communications of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Volume 9, 2nd Series, Volume 5, p. 321, Even now the Homoeopathists have been [...] outraging human nature with infusions of the pediculus capitis; that is, of course, as we understand their dilutions, the names of these things; for if a fine-tooth-comb insect were drowned in Lake Superior, we cannot agree with them in thinking that every drop of its waters would be impregnated with all the pedicular virtues they so highly value.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
adj
Meaning 2
Caused by lice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
Examples
1750, Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, London: W. Innys et al., 6th edition, Volume 2, entry “Pedicularis morbus,” Herod is said to have died of the Pedicular disease.
1885, H. v. Ziemssen, Handbook of Diseases of the Skin, New York: William Wood, “The Parasitic Diseases of the Skin,” p. 540, Hebra did not meet with pedicular ulcers, nor did he find lice under or in the skin; they were to be found always either on the hair, hairy parts, or the clothes.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
adj
Meaning 3
Having the lousy distemper, phthiriasis; infested with lice.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
adj
Meaning 4
Relating to a stem or pedicle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
Topics: biology, natural-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
From Latin pedicularis, from pediculus (“louse”). Compare French pédiculaire. By surface analysis, pedic(u)le + -ar.
