mushratn.
/ˈmʌʃrat/, U.S. /ˈməʃˌræt/, Canadian English /ˈmʌʃˌræt/ North American.
A muskrat. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > order Rodentia or rodent > superfamily Myomorpha (mouse, rat, vole, or hamster) > [noun] > family Microtidae > genus Ondatra (musk-rat)
water rat1481
rat1584
mussascus1612
muskrat1615
musquash1616
squash1678
Muscovy rat1693
musk beaver1771
Ondatra1774
rat-tailed shrew1827
mushrat1842
beaver-rat1884
musky1884
1842 ‘J. Cypress, Jr.’ Sporting Scenes & Sundry Sketches I. 58 His eyes was green and small's a mushrat's.
1890 Dial. Notes 1 74 Mushrat, the muskrat or musquash.
1901 ‘R. Connor’ Man from Glengarry 19 The Glengarry men..despised the Murphy gang as sawlogmen; ‘log-rollers’ or ‘mushrats’ they called them.
1939 W. Faulkner Wild Palms 218 If I took aboard every floating sardine can you sonabitchin mushrats want me to I wouldn't even have room forrard for a leadsman.
1954 C. Bruce Channel Shore 18 Stan was carrying on..talk of mushrats and rabbit-snaring.
1993 B. Kingsolver Pigs in Heaven iii. xxii. 221 Oh, this isn't a good one yet. This one they call the mushrat hole. I guess they used to trap a lot of mushrat and mink down here.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1842