backpedal(BICYCLE)
to press piano or organ pedals in order to make particular musical sounds:
The eccentric musician pedals his grand piano in stockinged feet.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Bicycles
backie
balance bike
bicycling
bike path
bike rack
BMX
chopper
fixie
freight bike
gear ratio
handlebar
keirin
reflector
skibob
stabilizer
surrey
tagalong
tandem
training wheels
trishaw

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Playing music

pedal | American Dictionary

pedal
noun[ C ]
us/ˈped·əl/
a small part of a machine or vehicle that you can press down with your foot to operate the machine or make the vehicle move:
bicycle pedals
You have to press down hard on the gas pedal to get this car up hills.

pedal

verb[ I/T ]us/ˈped·əl/
[ I/T ]He struggled to pedal (his bike) up the hill.

Examples of pedal

pedal
All bicycles have a chain wheel, the purpose of which is to transmit the power from the pedals of the cyclist to the chain.
If you stop pedalling, the bicycle will come to a halt.
Often involving desk-based devices such as the mouse or joystick, or foot pedals that are used to control the computer with the feet.
There are at least two reasons for me not to use foot pedals.
The textural and rhythmic profiles of the pedals vary from song to song.
We can also add other devices to the instrument such as motion tracking and pedals.
We have such a situation of overdetermination of a kind in the fourth example, that of the car with two brake pedals.
The use of close-ups here is particularly interesting; the focus is on the boys' feet and the pedals of the bike moving faster and faster.
I often see electric violinists who step on foot pedals, physically turning their bodies or heads towards the ground.
I worked with one composer whose piece required eight continuous controller pedals arranged in a semi-circle around my chair.
As roughly depicted in the sketches, these include pedals, sensors, separated or filtered audio input.
If you could lubricate your axles and cycle in a vacuum, you could travel along at a steady speed for ever, without pedalling!
There then follows two greatly augmented versions of the theme in dotted minims: first on the organ pedals (bar 30) and then in bar 32 in the trumpet.
In many cases, these involve changes that seem obviously desirable: reduced surface noise, more readable computer screens, more reliable pitch following, more comfortable and responsive pedals.
Having previously tested this array, the composer was surprised to find that my 5'3" frame could not straddle pedals 1 and 8 simultaneously, as his larger body easily could!
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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.