centipedaladj.1
/ˈsɛntᵻpiːdl/, U.S. /ˈsɛn(t)əˌpidəl/ Resembling or suggestive of a centipede, esp. with regard to having multiple legs.
ΚΠ
1836 Naval Mag. Jan. 43 The awkward caravan, with its centipedal march.
1873 Scribner's Monthly Feb. 424/1 Great dragon-boats, that look like centipedal monsters with uplifted heads.
1885 H. M. Stanley Congo I. vii. 88 The sea-loving mangrove, with its sickening ooze and fantastic centipedal roots, has quite disappeared.
1914 Amer. Cookery Oct. 225/2 Here's a row of stockings—a long, centipedal row.
1932 C. A. Smith in Strange Tales 1 399/1 The Bhlemphroims..had few if any interests beyond the cultivation of a great variety of edible fungi, the breeding of large centipedal animals, and the propagation of their own species.
1978 W. F. Buckley Stained Glass xv. 157 They looked like a centipedal firefly as they made their sinuous way down the mountain.
2005 P. R. Keefe Chatter ii. 38 Rooftops and soot-stained chimneys jutting with ancient, centipedal television antennae.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
† centipedaladj.2
Obsolete. rare.
Of a word, line of poetry, etc.: consisting of one hundred metrical feet; (hyperbolically) having many syllables.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > metre > [adjective] > composed in feet > of a hundred feet
centipedal1879
1879 G. Meredith Egoist II. vi. 136 Your uncertainty..would only be extended were the line centipedal.
1882 E. W. Washburn Stud. Early Eng. Lit. vii. 153 Conversation made up of all the largest centipedal words in Webster.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2016; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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adj.11836
adj.21879