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quiquinaca.

Headword: 
quiquinaca.
Principal English Translation: 

to talk through clenched teeth because of pain or anger; to growl, grunt, squeal, or buzz (see Molina and Karttunen)

IPAspelling: 
kikinɑkɑ
Alonso de Molina: 

quiquinaca. ni. (pret. oniquiquinacac.) gemir con dolor, o zumbar el auejon, gruñir el puerco, regañar el perro, o hablar entre dientes.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 90r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

QUIQUINACA pret: -C to talk through clenched teeth because of pain or anger; to growl, grunt, squeal, buzz / gemir con dolor, o zumbar el abejón, gruñir el puerco, regañar el perro, o hablar entre dientes (M) [(1)Cf.75r,(4)Zp.66,147,193], In one attestation Z has a long vowel in NA, but elsewhere it is short. See QUIQUINATZ(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 212.

Attestations from sources in English: 

quiquinaca (verb) = to groan, to buzz, etc.
Daniel Garrison Brinton, Ancient Nahuatl Poetry: Containing the Nahuatl Text of XXVII Ancient Mexican Poems (1877), 162.